


Phantom Memories

by overrated_joe



Series: Sometimes It's Better to Take What's Given to You [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Male Frisk, Minor Character(s), Older Frisk, Post-Undertale Neutral Route - Empress Undyne Ending, Spoilers - Undertale Neutral Route, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Suicidal Thoughts, Survival, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 12:18:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 47,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8327536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overrated_joe/pseuds/overrated_joe
Summary: "Walk – that was all they did. That was all they had been doing for the past two months. That was all they could do – forward was the only way to go."As the second monster-human war takes place, Frisk has no choice but to live a life on the run. He knows he needs to be strong – he needs to survive. But what will he do when an inconvenient truth starts to surface?





	1. Further Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! This story took way longer than I expected to finish, but now it's here, so I hope you enjoy!  
> To the newcomers: this is the the second part of a series. I strongly recommend reading the first part, Falling Apart, before this one, otherwise you may be a little confused. I assure you it will be worth it! :)  
> 

Frisk gazed at his own reflection on the water, fumbling his hair. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen himself. Considering the circumstances, he didn’t look too bad – apart from the dirt on his cheeks and the old bandage on his chin, he was fine.

He was by a river that crossed a forest they had camped in that night. The region was heavily forested, so more often than not they had been camping at woods like those. It had been a while since they left the last town they had came across – but Frisk wasn’t complaining. At least in the forest he didn’t have to see the bloodied marks, gunshot spots, and derelict buildings that composed the scenario of war. He could almost pretend things were normal.

Then again, he wouldn’t be hiding in the woods if there wasn’t a war taking place.

The day was dawning, and Frisk knew soon enough the others would start waking up, if they weren’t already. The night guard would usually end with him, or with Monster Kid (who preferred to be simply called MK now), if he wasn’t feeling up to it.

He looked at his reflection again, and then at his backpack that he had tossed by his side. He sighed – it had to be done, and it had to be done at that moment.

Opening one of the bag’s pockets, the human picked up the hair cutting razor he had obtained from a department store almost two months before. Frisk had been postponing doing what he was about to do, but he knew eventually he would have to do it. His hair was long and messy, and more often than not it would cover his eyes, making it hard to see, specially during emergency situations. And they had already faced some pretty dangerous moments. It was the right thing to do.

It didn’t mean he liked it, though.

“This is gonna _suck_.”, he said, not sure to whom or why, looking at the razor.

Grabbing a chunk of his hair, he let out a sigh before cutting it with the blade. It was surprisingly easy. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, in the end.

Whoa. That was a _lot_ of hair. Seeing he had cut so much made his heart sink a little. Well, no turning back now.

As he finished with his fringe, he started working on the hair on the back of his head, and then at the sides. Every time he cut a chunk, he felt he was letting a part of himself go.

Ok, maybe he was just being silly. That’s the only thing it was – hair. He didn’t really need...

Oh, _no_. He had cut too much. He could feel his bare head on his left side, on a place he wasn’t supposed to. Why was that so hard?

For some reason, worrying about something as trivial as his appearance was comforting. The human was worried all the time if he would survive to see the next day – and if his friends would be there with him, too. He worried about food, supplies, wounds, and potential enemies along the way. There had to be a break from it all sometime, and if it ended up being because of getting his hair cut, he’d gladly take it.

And then, it was done. He looked at his reflection one more time. Yep, his new hair looked as horrible as it could. All within expectations.

The sun had already risen a bit – it was probably time for him to return to the camp, before the others would start worrying. He wasn’t looking forward to the comments he’d get for his new look. Frisk put his backpack on and started to make his way back.

Since the war had started, the human teamed up with Sans and Papyrus, the two skeleton brothers he had befriended in the Underground six years before. Later, they found Monster Kid, who initially wanted to take Frisk to Undyne, but ended up joining them instead. The group’s plan was to get to and stop the empress. How they would do that was another story, and one Frisk wasn’t really willing to know yet.

Soon enough, the human spotted the clearing they had settled for the camping. Everybody was up and getting ready to leave. Papyrus was furiously fumbling with his backpack before noticing Frisk, and when he did, he smiled kindly.

“GOOD MORNING, HU...”, said the skeleton, noticing the human’s haircut as he approached. “...MAN? YOU LOOK... DIFFERENT!”

“Whoa man, you look ugly as hell!”, commented MK, noticing Frisk too.

“N-NO, HE DOESN’T!”, said Papyrus, glancing a disapproving look to the yellow monster, before smiling to the human again, trying (and failing) to sound reassuring. “HE LOOKS... UM... TRENDY..?”

“It’s okay, Papyrus.”, stated Frisk, sounding more down than he should. “I know it looks horrible.”

Sans raised his head to look at the human, his grin wide as usual.

“do you mean... ‘hairable’?”, said Sans, winking at Frisk.

“UGH, SANS! _WHY_?”

“bro, look at them. they look like an emo porcupine who forgot to straighten their hair.”

MK snorted, trying to conceal a laugh. Papyrus threw his arms in the air, in a display of frustration.

“BROTHER, THAT’S OFFENSIVE TO THE HUMAN _AND_ TO PORCUPINES! PLEASE REFRAIN FROM MAKING THESE KINDS OF STATEMENTS!”

Sans avoided eye contact with his brother.

“ya know i hate promises, so there’s that.”

“Right, I got it.” said Frisk, trying not to sound annoyed. “Can we go now?”

“heh, sure.”, replied Sans, putting his backpack on. “this way.”

With that, the four began to walk through the woods, finding a trail shortly after. Frisk had the impression they were venturing deeper into the forest, rather than trying to find a highway or a reference point to make their way to a city – which made the human confused. They were supposed to go to a town as their supplies were beginning to run low. Sans and Papyrus walked in front, while MK and him walked behind them.           

“So, where are we going?”, he asked.

Sans was drinking water from a bottle, and took a while to answer.

“if my readings from the map are right...”, replied the skeleton, wiping his teeth. “... we are kinda close to the ocean, which makes us close to a shore. we are heading there.”

“Shore? I thought we were going to a town?”, stated MK, surprised. “What are we doing there?”

Sans offered the water bottle to Papyrus, who took it.

“isn’t it obvious? we’re having a beach party.”, said Sans, looking behind to face the skeptical looks of Frisk and MK. “nah, just kidding. i figured it would be easier to walk than these woods we have been walking through, and safer than the highways. it’s just another means to get to the same place.”

Papyrus looked at his brother with a surprising admiration.

“WOWIE, SANS! THAT’S REALLY SMART!”

“i try my best, bro.”, stated Sans, sounding happy with the compliment.

“WANT SOME WATER, HUMAN? MK?”

Both Frisk and the yellow monster declined, and Papyrus put the bottle in his backpack. The taller skeleton gave in and began wearing it two weeks after MK joined the group – he initially didn’t want to because he couldn’t pay for that, but after some persuasion from Sans he finally agreed to. It made things a lot easier, as before that both the shorter skeleton and the human had to take shifts in carrying two backpacks, which was okay when they were empty, but not so okay when they were full. MK wanted to help, but he couldn’t carry a backpack for obvious reasons.

It seemed not even Papyrus could stand by all his morals during a war. Still, Frisk was happy to notice that, despite everything, they kept being the same cheery, goofy skeleton they had always been.

Frisk looked up, enjoying the warm sun that passed through the leaves. It was a nice day – neither hot nor cold. He was feeling lighthearted, and had the impression the rest of the group was like that as well. The human learned, soon enough, it was all about food: when they could have a good meal, things were hopeful and companionable. When they couldn’t, things would be tense, everybody at the brink of a breakdown (expect, perhaps, Papyrus, who would try to cheer them up no matter what).

As time passed, they had to eventually walk through a tricky part of the woods, as the vines and roots on the ground made it easy to trip and fall, as well as the trees that were a bit too close to each other. Sans and Papyrus went smoothly ahead, and Frisk had no problem, but he kept close to MK to help them. They had a bit more difficulty in maneuvering through the woods, but were handling it just fine.

“You don’t trip and fall everywhere now, do you?”, asked Frisk, jokingly.

“Nah.”, replied the monster. “You learn how to keep balance as you grow.”

Frisk remembered MK from six years before. They’d literally trip every few steps when they attempted to run. In fact, they’d fall with their face to the ground so many times their face used to always be full of bruises and scratches.

They were both behind the two skeletons by a considerable distance, but tried to keep up the pace nonetheless. Frisk could hear the sounds of the forest surrounding them, and it was soothing in a strange way.

“He doesn’t trust me, does he?”, asked MK, suddenly.

“Who? Sans?”, replied Frisk, surprised by the yellow monster bringing that up.

“Yeah... I mean... man, I feel he watches me every time we settle down somewhere. You know, seeing what I’m doing. And when it’s my shift on the night watch, I have the impression he’s awake. Staring at me.”

Frisk bit his tongue. He wanted to say it was all MK’s imagination, but he knew that wasn’t true. It was obvious Sans didn’t trust the reptilian monster at all, and the human didn’t doubt the skeleton would actually keep an eye (or eye socket) on them when they were on night watch, even if it meant less sleep time.

“You gotta give him time.”, said Frisk. “I mean, we won’t pretend you didn’t do anything wrong back then.”

“ _Time_? It’s been two months already!”, replied MK, bothered. “It’s just... I think he’d leave me behind on the first opportunity.”

They sounded so heartbroken that Frisk stopped walking, looking at their face. They stopped too, looking at the human.

“Hey, I’m not letting that happen, you know.”, he stated.

“Maybe you should.”, said MK, looking down. “I’m still not sure why you forgave me so easily.”

To be fair, Frisk wasn’t sure either – not that he had put much thought into that.

“MK, _I’m_ supposed to be the emo porcupine here.”, said Frisk, pointing to his hair. “So stop whining, you crybaby.”

MK chuckled, and Frisk smiled. There was no use in feeling down, anyway.

“HEY, YOU TWO!”, called Papyrus, and Frisk looked to where the voice came from. He spotted the skeletons ahead, and they were looking at the human and the yellow monster. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? COME HERE!”

“even a lazybones like me managed to keep up with pap! c’mon, guys!”, shouted Sans.

“Coming!”, Frisk shouted back at the brothers, and he and MK started to walk towards them.

And then, the yellow monster tripped on a vine and fell with his face flat on the ground.

* * *

 

They kept travelling for a couple of days. Walk – that was all they did. That was all they had been doing for the past two months. That was all they could do – forward was the only way to go.

They’d settle down for the night in the forest. Frisk thought about making a fire, but it could draw attention. They had never found anybody in the woods before, but they couldn’t take risks. Plus, the four kept walking all day long, with few pauses, so they would be tired when night came.

Eventually, the vegetation started to get more sparse, and Frisk noticed the dirt on the ground was beggining to appear mixed up with sand. And then, they reached it.

“WOWIE! FINALLY!”, said Papyrus, excited.

They were facing the sea – the sand before it was thick and full of fragments of shells. It had never came to the human how they were in such a remote region. He doubted that many people would go to that beach, considering the vast forest surrounding it. The day had started out sunny, but it grew overcast as the afternoon went on. It was still hot though, and heavy drops of sweat covered Frisk’s face. At least, one of the advantages of his new short hair was that he could bear the summer weather more easily.

He looked to his left. Against all odds, there was a small wooden shack in the distance. Maybe a fisherman used to live in there sometime in the past, but it seemed abandoned.

“Do you think there is anyone there?”, asked MK, sounding concerned.

“Probably not.”, replied Frisk. “But we should be careful. I’ll go on ahead. Talk if necessary.”

Sans merely nodded in agreement, and Papyrus made a positive sign with his thumb as Frisk took the front and guided the group to the shack.

He knew before he opened the door there wasn’t anybody there. In fact, it seemed nobody had been living in there for quite sometime. A heavy layer of dust covered everything.

The shack consisted merely of one room. A small table and chair were by the window, and a bed was by the opposite wall. There was a simply-made cupboard by its side, and an old stove and a fridge were by one corner. The place wasn’t exactly in its top form – there were gaps and holes in the walls, and a small part of the ceiling had broken down. Directly under it moss and fungi had settled down, probably due to the humidity caused by rains that entered the shack.

“OH MY, THIS PLACE COULD REALLY DO WITH SOME CLEANING!”, commented Papyrus, sounding a bit grossed out by even having to step inside it.

“welp, this is better than we could have expected.”, stated Sans, his pupils scanning the room. “let’s see if there’s anything good left.”

The skeleton proceeded to open the small cupboard, and a horrid smell filled the air. There were a few cans of food inside, but they all had expired.

“geez, this must have expired ten years ago.”, said Sans, picking one up and looking at the label. “nope, twelve. close enough.”

“SANS, DON’T PICK THAT UP!”, said Papyrus disapprovingly. “YOU MIGHT GET A DISEASE JUST BY TOUCHING THAT!”

“y’know pap, for once i agree.”, said Sans, grinning and returning the can to the cupboard, closing it. “i don’t think we need to open the fridge now, do we?”

Frisk looked at the old fridge by the corner. It looked like it hadn’t been used for years. Maybe Frisk wasn’t even born when it was last functioning. Sans was right – there was no need to check it.

Papyrus kept looking around, seemingly anxious to be in such a dirty environment. MK didn’t mind it and sat on the dusty bed, looking tired. Sans just kept looking around, with a silly smile on his face, like he was coming up with a joke (and he probably was). Frisk felt slightly nauseated after the “cupboard incident”, the smell of the rotten food still in his nose. He needed some fresh air.

“I’m going outside for a bit.”, he announced, tossing his backpack on a corner. “Be right back.”

“okay, just be careful, buddo.”, said Sans, looking under the bed.

“I’D GO WITH YOU, BUT I THINK I AM GOING TO CLEAN THIS PLACE WHEREVER I CAN!”, said Papyrus.

Frisk could only imagine how the taller skeleton would do that, but didn’t question it. Instead, he just turned around and went back to the beach.

The sky was already a bit darker, indicating night was approaching. The sand felt crunchy as the human stepped on it. He decided to take a walk alongside the sea. It would make him feel better.

The water was dirty, slightly brown in color, and Frisk reckoned it was because of the sand. Still, he felt something familiar by looking at it – which was strange, as he had never been to a beach before. It was like he was remembering something he had long forgotten. What was it?

He was feeling something else. It took him a while, but as he kept walking he noticed it was... anxiety. Not the kind that would make people nervous or unsettled, but the kind that would cause a slight discomfort – bearable, but still there.

The sound of the sea was often described to be soothing, but now that Frisk was facing it, he wasn’t sure he agreed. He stopped and closed his eyes, trying to understand why. There was a reason, he was sure of it, something almost primal.

Maybe he was just afraid of it? It made sense, since he had never actually been that close to the ocean. That was the easy answer – was it the correct one, though?

He decided to test it, and walked closer to the sea. However, he didn’t feel his discomfort increase. It kept stable. He had reached the part where the sea was meeting the sand. The water touched his shoes, and he felt himself sinking slightly in the brown sand. It was a funny feeling – one he wasn’t used to, and it took his mind out of things.

Looking to the ground, Frisk raised his left foot, then his right one. It made a funny sound. He chuckled, thinking that Sans would probably like it. He made a mental note to tell them later.

The human then observed the pieces of rocks and shells that were mixed to the sand. They were brown, which meant they had been there for a long time. The rocks were odd – they were all long and some of them seemed to have broken in weird patterns. Frisk thought about picking one up when he spotted it.

A skull. In fact, there was another one nearby, too. A dead kind of horror started to install within Frisk’s guts.

Something was wrong. Those weren’t rocks.

Those were bones. _Human bones_.

Before he knew it, he felt something wrapping up his leg. The fear within him turned into desperation as he saw it was a white tentacle that had come up from the sea, sneaking up on him as he was distracted by the bones.

He attempted to free his leg, but the tentacle pulled him, making him fall with his back. It started to bring him to the sea with an increasing speed.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no..!

Frisk tried to grab something to keep him out of the water, but there was only sand around. Within seconds, he could already feel his clothes getting soaked by the salty, cold water. Whatever that thing was, it was trying to drown him.

The human fought with all his might, but to no avail. He couldn’t free himself. He tried to use his hands to release from the tentacle’s grasp, but it was too strong. He tried to scream, but his voice was gone.

Mere seconds later, his head was already immerse in the water. He attempted to reach out for air, but he was simply pulled further away from the surface. Inside the ocean, he struggled and struggled, wiggling his body to free himself, but that only tired him out.

He needed air – every cell in his body was screaming that. He felt his conscience slowly fading and the world around him turning black. His chest hurt when the water invaded his nose, filling up his lungs.

The last thing he remembered was desperately looking up and watching the surface getting more and more distant.

* * *

 

 _Frisk looked behind. He was sure of it this time. There was something in the water there._

_He was in Waterfall, in a sort of corridor with two streams of water on both sides of the room. The water seemed somewhat deep. The human didn’t know how to swim, so they tried to maintain themselves away from it._

_But he wasn’t alone. He could feel it. Whether it was friend or foe, he couldn’t tell. Taking careful steps, Frisk proceeded his walk through the corridor, until a bubbling sound by his left made him stop._

_His heart raced, but he kept frozen in place as he saw a gigantic yellow head emerge from the water. It had tentacles too, and they looked like they were in a fighting stance when Frisk noticed the monster was smiling in a goofy way._

_“Hey there...”, they said, their voice comically thin despite their huge size. “Noticed you were... here...”_

_Frisk sighed in relief. The monster seemed to have a friendly nature, much like most of the creatures he had met in the Underground._

_“I’m... I’m Onionsan!”, they said, sounding unsure for some reason. “Onionsan, y’hear!”, they repeated, as if to prove they were right._

_Their smile somehow got even goofier, making Frisk uncomfortable._

_“Um... hi.”, greeted the human. “Just passing by. I’m... I’m leaving already. Sorry to disturb you.”_

_“It’s... it’s okay!”, replied Onionsan, willing to start a conversation. “You visiting Waterfall, huh? Do you like it here?”_

_“Yeah, it’s really... uh... nice.”, stated Frisk. There was no reason to say Undyne had been trying to kill him ever since he had stepped in there._

_Frisk kept walking, but the monster followed him in the water. The human wished they wouldn’t do that. They were trying to be nice and all, but it just weirded him out._

_“Y-yeah, it is, huh!”, said the monster, a few seconds too late for the conversation to flow normally. “Way better than the aquarium all my friends live in the capital... too crowded there.”_

_They sounded a bit depressed when they said that, and Frisk stopped, looking at Onionsan. They weren’t with a happy expression anymore – in fact, they were looking at the water sorrowfully._

_“Even though...”, they continued. “The water’s getting so shallow here... I have to sit all the time... and sometimes it’s hard to breathe...”_

_Frisk glanced at the water. It was deep, but Onionsan was a really big monster. It was clear that wasn’t a fit place for someone like them. Frisk found himself suddenly filled with concern._

_“You sure you’re okay?”, he asked._

_The monster looked at Frisk, their smile returning._

_“W-what? Oh, don’t worry! It’s... fine! The aquarium is full... anyway.”, they tried to sound cheerful, but Frisk knew it wasn’t sincere. “Besides, Undyne will save us all, y’hear! We’ll get to the surface, y’hear! I heard a human has fallen down here, y’hear!”_

_Frisk tried to smile, but faltered. It wasn’t the first time monsters told him a human had fallen down there. Not all creatures knew what humans looked like – many of them thought the boy was actually just another monster. Frisk wasn’t bothered by it, though he still felt out of place in the Underground._

_Frisk looked uncomfortably to the ground before he began to walk through the corridor once more. Onionsan accompanied him, but this time they didn’t say a word. The human wanted to say something – that they would be alright, or that they’d get to see the surface – but he couldn’t bring himself to say it._

_“So... that’s the end of the room... I guess that’s it, huh?”_

_Frisk looked at the monster. They weren’t trying to conceal their sad face anymore, but still smiled kindly._

_“So... I guess I’ll see you around... in Waterfaaaaaaall!”, they said, making a motion with a tentacle that Frisk interpreted as a goodbye movement. They slowly sank back into the water._

_The human stood there for a while, unsure of what to make of the situation. All that time, he had wanted to leave the Underground, but... was it really the right thing to do? Didn’t those monsters deserve freedom more than he did?_

_“Sorry.”_

_With that, he walked out of the room, continuing his surrealistic journey._

* * *

 

Frisk woke up coughing. A second later, it all came to him at the same time – his head hurt, his limbs were numb, he felt sick on the stomach and his whole body was shaking.

He was laying down on the sand, and his vision was spinning. He caught sight of Sans, Papyrus, and MK crouched down around him. They seemed to be talking, but their voices sounded muffled. Papyrus’ piercing voice made his head hurt even more.

The human turned to the side, coughing, gagging and spurting, throwing up water. His torso hurt with the effort. He attempted to raise his head a bit, but when it felt like the whole world was making a 360o turn at the speed of light, he let it fall back to the sand. He felt a bony hand holding his own, and managed to distinguish Papyrus’ concerned expression amidst all that anguish.

As time passed, things started to get back to normal. His vision stopped spinning, and he could hear more clearly. He still felt sick, though, and his shivers also remained. As sensitivity returned to his cold skin, he began to feel the wet clothes against it.

Frisk attempted to sit upright, but his trembling body made it a hard task. Papyrus grabbed his sides to help him out.

“ARE HIS LIPS SUPPOSED TO BE PURPLE?”, asked the taller skeleton, sounding extremely worried.

“nope.”, replied Sans, taking his jacket off and wrapping it around Frisk like a blanket. “geez, bud, how the hell did you get yourself into this mess?”

The human tried to talk, but his throat wasn’t willing to produce any sound. He coughed and took a few breaths before attempting it again. Papyrus rubbed circles on his back.

“T-t-th... that... w-was...”, he managed to say, his voice weak and his teeth rattling.

“it wasn’t.”, replied Sans, avoiding eye contact. “they died. years ago. lack of oxygen in the water.”

Frisk felt his eyes burning, and his whole face hurt. Everything hurt, and not only on a physical level.

“W-w-wh... who..?”

“another monster. don’t know who. if mk hadn’t seen you being pulled into the water, we wouldn’t have been able to save you. we made them flee, and papyrus jumped to the sea and brought you back.”

“WE... WE THOUGHT WE HAD LOST YOU, HUMAN!”, said Papyrus, his voice full of emotion, like he was about to cry. “DON’T BE SO RECKLESS!”

Frisk looked to the faces of the three monsters. All of them seemed to be deeply concerned. The human wasn’t used to that kind of treatment, and felt bad for making everyone so worried.

“Th... thanks...”, he said. “A-and... so-sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”, said MK. “I just don’t get it. What was a monster doing here? What were _humans_ doing here? I thought we were in a pretty isolated region?”

He kicked a human skull away, and gazed to the bones that were on the shore, puzzled.

“maybe we are close to a camp or something.”, replied Sans. “we need to be extra careful now.”

The sky had a purple tone, and it was getting dark fast. Frisk’s shivers were already coming to a stop.

“LET’S GET BACK TO THAT... UM... PLACE.”, said Papyrus, sounding as if the mere idea of returning to the shack disgusted him. “YOU WON’T DO ANY NIGHT SHIFTS TONIGHT, HUMAN! JUST REST, OK? THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND THE OTHERS WILL TAKE CARE OF THE WATCH!”

“Yeah!” agreed MK. “Leave it to us!”

“don’t sweat about it, frisk. you need to recover.”, added Sans.

Normally, Frisk would say they were being ridiculous and that he was fully capable of doing a night watch, but in that moment he was feeling so worn out he just took the offer.

With the help of the two skeletons, the human stood up and they all walked back to the shack. The human noticed it was a bit difficult to walk, but leaned against Papyrus for support. The monster helped, and Frisk learned that, with friends like those, maybe nothing would be too hard to do.

* * *

He remembered.

Why he felt anxious around water. Why it caused him discomfort. How could he have forgotten? It was part of the very reason he was the way he was. The starting point of his story. 

It was already dark outside, but Sans and Papyrus had turned two flashlights on so that everybody could see. No one was sleeping, so the night watch hadn’t started. As Frisk felt he was about to cry, he wished the shift would begin soon.

He was sitting on a corner. Nobody was really doing anything. Sans played to make shadows with the flashlight. Papyrus hummed a tune. MK just sat on the bed, looking to the ground.

He couldn’t do it. Not in front of them. He had to get out.

The human stood up and walked to the entrance of the shack. The other three looked at him.

“HUMAN?”, asked Papyrus. “PLEASE, DON’T GO OUT AGAIN... IT MAY BE DANGEROUS!”

“I’ll be fine.”, replied Frisk, struggling to maintain his voice stable. “I’ll keep by the shack. I just need some fresh air.”

Before they could object, he exited the shack and turned the corner of it, sitting on the sand and leaning his back against the wall. The air was chillier than it had been during the day, but it didn’t make Frisk cold. He had swapped his clothes to a simple white T-shirt and an old pair of jeans, as his soaked ones were left to dry.

He wanted to cry. He felt his throat burning and tears forming in his eyes. He hadn’t felt that way in a long time – he never imagined he’d feel that way because of _that_ again.

He heard steps on the crunchy sand approaching, and quickly swallowed a sob and dried his face. Sans appeared from the corner and stood there for a moment, before sitting down next to him. It was hard to make the skeleton’s form in the dark, but Frisk knew it was them – a short, bony figure that was unmistakable.

“heya. wanna talk?”, he asked. “something bothering ya?”

The human didn’t know if he wanted to talk to Sans about it, but knew that he would get a lot out from his chest if he did it. Yes – he had to do it. Keeping a ghost from the past hidden would only cause problems in the future.

“That’s... how she died.”, said Frisk, his voice low.

“who? toriel?”, asked Sans, confused.

The human took a deep breath and shook his head.

“No.”, he replied. “My mother. Drowned. I had forgotten about it.”

Sans didn’t say anything. It was clear they didn’t expect the conversation to take that turn.

“i’m sorry.”, said the skeleton. “do you remember her?”

“Yeah...”, answered Frisk, feeling emotionally tired. “Yeah... she was... nice. Don’t remember seeing her much, because she was working all the time. She was a single mother, but... when we were together, I felt... I felt so good. She was probably the only human being I ever really loved.”

That was a bold statement, and Frisk was fully aware of that. Sans seemed to be thinking carefully of what he was going to reply.

“whoa, frisk.”, he finally said. “that’s a harsh thing to say.”

“It’s the truth.”, the human merely replied. “Anyway... I _saw_ her die. We were near a lake, I think. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but she fell and didn’t come back. Then I was at that orphanage.”

Sans left eye started to glow. It wasn’t that eerie light Frisk had seen before, though. This one had a greenish color, and felt more warm and comforting. Its gentleness illuminated the area a bit, and Frisk could see the skeleton’s expression, and it was a pensive one.

“nobody here has a happy story, huh?”, they said, wrapping their arms around their legs. “pap and i... we came from an orphanage as well.”

Frisk held his breath. It felt like Sans was finally about to open up, even if just a little. In the past, they had told him they would do that eventually, and it was nice to see they had kept their word.

“i... need to confess something.”, they continued, their expression full of guilt. “pap is not my biological brother. but he doesn’t know that.”

The human thought for a moment. It made sense – the skeleton brothers were physically very different from each other. However, that possibility had never crossed his mind because he didn’t know how monster’s genetics worked.

“i don’t remember my parents. at all.”, continued Sans. “they might have died. they might have abandoned me. i don’t really care. what i do remember is when pap got to the orphanage, though. he was... what? one year old? and gosh, when he saw me for the first time, he laughed, and i got so, so attached. i’d help to feed him. i’d play with him. hell, i’d even help to change his diapers. it sounds like a chore, but he helped to brighten up my day. i stopped feeling so alone.”

Sans was smiling nostalgically, like he could almost see Papyrus’ baby face right in front of him again. It made Frisk feel warm inside. Then, the skeleton sighed and proceeded.

“welp, one day one of the ladies that ran the orphanage called me. i was nine, and paps was three. she told me that a couple was gonna adopt him. i knew what that meant. i’d be all alone again.”

The glow on his eye flickered for a brief moment.

“i couldn’t stand it. that’s why...”, Sans seemed to be unsure if he should say what he was about to say. “that’s why i ran away with him. pretty selfish, huh? i took away his opportunity to grow up with a loving, caring family to make him grow up with me, a screwed up, lonely child.”

The skeleton’s voice had a regretful tone Frisk never expected to hear. That explained why they were so protective of their brother. They were so afraid of losing him – they had _always_ been afraid of losing him.

“we lived on the streets, like beggars. it was not until i was sixteen and got my first job that we were able to rent a room and live under a roof. it was a tough life, but papyrus was always there cheer me up. you... you didn’t have anybody, did you?”

Frisk shook his head. No, he never had anybody to count on. Nobody to make him happy. Nobody to make him smile – up until that moment. With Sans, Papyrus and MK, he was finally learning how to be happy, even with the horrors of the war around him. That was somewhat messed up, but could he blame himself for that?

“do you think pap would hate me if i revealed all that to him?”, asked the skeleton.

Frisk knew the answer, and he didn’t even had to think about it.

“Of course not.”, he answered. “He loves you, like you love him. Anyone can tell that. He’ll never hate you, no matter what.”

“heh, thanks, buddy.”, said Sans, smiling a little.

“You’re welcome.”, replied Frisk. “But you should be sincere with him. Tell him what you just told me.”

“i will. one day.”, they stated.

The human stood up and offered his hand for the skeleton to do the same. They took it, and they both walked back to the shack’s entrance.

“frisk?”, called the skeleton, a few steps from the door. “you know what we’ll have to do for the war to end, right?”

Frisk closed his eyes, and when he opened again, he was looking at the ground. He had never really given much thought about it, yet he knew exactly what had to be done.

“Yes. I do. And I hate it.”

“good.”


	2. Cinnamon

The next few days seemed to mend with each other without Frisk being able to tell them apart. The weather got unbelievably hot, making the group tire out much faster during their travels. They never stood in the same place for more than a couple hours, specially after the human’s near death experience back at the beach.

Not much was said during those travels. Sometimes Sans would make a joke (and his brother would react just as expected), but apart from that, conversations were brief and direct. Things were starting to get tense again as their supplies got lower by the day. Conserving it came with a price, and that price was that everyone was getting in a foul mood. Time came when even Papyrus stopped trying to cheer the group up. It seemed even the taller skeleton had his limits.

“This is getting ridiculous.”, said MK, grumpy, while they were walking on a trail in yet another forest. “It’s been almost three weeks since we’ve seen a city. We are getting nowhere.”

“then you should not be using your energy to complain.”, said Sans, visibly annoyed himself. “and just walk. i’m not carrying you around if you faint or something.”

“Like I’d ask you to do that.”

Frisk knew those little fights would happen eventually. They never did any good to anyone. He hated them, but could do nothing to stop it from happening – even he had participated in some of them during the past two months. It was only natural, but the human felt his patience going down. It didn’t help he had woken up with a bad headache that day.

“Face it: we are lost.”, continued MK. “You misread the map.”

“i _didn’t_ misread the map.”, said Sans, struggling to keep his voice calm. “we are getting there.”

“You said we were getting there days ago!”

“oh, you wanna read the damn map, then? because i’d love to know your opinion on where we should be going now.”

“I’d do it, but you never let me read it!”

“oh yeah, i remembered now: i don’t wanna know what you have to say. i’m twice your age, maybe even a little more, so you should be listening to me.”

Frisk pressed his temples. His head was really pounding. He looked to Papyrus, praying the taller skeleton would do something, but it seemed they were just as unwilling to do anything as he was.

“Okay, I see you’re using the age thing again.”, said MK, rolling his eyes. “Just because you’re old it doesn’t mean you know more. It just means you’re old.”

“it means i’m more experienced, you brat.”, replied Sans. “and i’ve done more for this group than you’ll ever will.”

“Yeah, like getting us lost on these stupid woods again.”

“if you are so unsatisfied, why don’t you just leave? by all means, be my guest.”

“Shut up, you two.” said Frisk, stopping where he was. Everyone else stopped and looked at him.

“Frisk, tell him we are lost.”, said MK. “I can’t get through that thick skull of his, but you...”

“oh, stealing my jokes now, i see.”

“Will you two shut up already!?”, said Frisk, raising his voice. “Aren’t you hearing this?”

The other three looked confused at him, but then realization came to each of their faces. Among the noises of the forest, there was a distinguishable sound in the distance, like an electric short circuit of some sort.

“WHAT IS THAT?”, questioned Papyrus, with an intrigued expression.

“Should we investigate?”, asked MK, almost whispering.

“I think so.”, said the human. “Let’s just be careful, ok?”

The four got out of the trail, following the sound. They were being as silent as they could be, as there could be someone nearby and they didn’t want to be caught off guard. As the noise got louder, meaning they got closer to whatever was causing it, Frisk noticed the tree’s trunks started to appear with a black, burned side.

The human’s heart failed a beat when he saw it.

A wrecked helicopter had crashed there. It had destroyed some of the trees – pieces of them scattered on the ground. The helicopter itself was black and burned beyond salvation, but its engine was still on, although broken, hence the noise they’d been hearing.

“WOWIE! WHAT’S THAT?”, asked Papyrus.

“A helicopter.”, replied Frisk. “At least, it _was_ one.”

“WHAT’S A HELICOPTER?”

From time to time, he human forgot some things they had on the surface didn’t exist in the Underground. It’s not like monsters ever needed helicopters where they lived, for example.

“It’s like a machine that flies.”, he answered.

“So... it’s like a Tsunderplane?”, asked MK, raising an eyebrow.

“Um... yeah, but less... I don’t know, live?”, said Frisk, unsure.

“it’s pretty destroyed.”, said Sans, walking around the helicopter and looking at the wreckage. “this thing is not gonna be flying any time soon.”

Frisk peeked inside, looking at the pilot’s seat. He was expecting to see a human corpse there, but it was empty.

“whatcha think that happened?”, asked Sans, puzzled.

“I don’t know.”, replied Frisk, looking at the skeleton. “I think there were humans here? Don’t know what happened to them, but I don’t think they survived.”

“yep, it was a bad crash.”, said the skeleton, looking above, as if imagining the helicopter falling down from the sky. “chances of survival would be minimal.”

Frisk imagined being inside a crashing plane or helicopter was a pretty terrifying way to die, and shivered when he thought how whoever was inside felt when it was coming down.

“HEY, COME HERE!”, called Papyrus. He was next to a tree, pointing to the ground. “I FOUND SOMETHING!”

The other three joined the taller skeleton, and looked at where he was pointing. Frisk’s jaw dropped. He remembered that. It had a bright yellow paper wrapped around it, but its shape was what gave it away. The last time the human had seen it, he was in Snowdin Town.

“ _Dude_... but... this is a...”, began MK, not believing his eyes.

“Cinnamon Bunny.”, completed Frisk, completely taken aback as well.

“WHAT’S THIS DOING HERE?”, inquired Papyrus, picking it up and wiping the dirt away from the package.

That was a great question. As far as Frisk knew, there was only one place on the entire planet you could get a Cinnamon Bunny wrapped exactly like that one. How it had found its way into those woods, he had no idea. Of course, it could be all a coincidence, but the human had a feeling in his gut that wasn’t the case.

“heya, you should look at this.”, said Sans, crouched down a few feet away. Frisk snapped out from his thoughts as he, MK and Papyrus headed to where they were.

At first, Frisk didn’t see anything out of ordinary on the ground near the shorter skeleton, but on a second look he spotted a faint trail of a pair of small footprints, headed northeast from where they were.

“it looks like they tried to conceal their footprints.”, concluded Sans, standing up. “they didn’t do a very good job.”

“The footprints are probably from a child, judging from the size.”, analyzed MK. “Umm... I just can’t say what type of monster it is.”

“WE SHOULD FOLLOW THEM, THEN!”, said Papyrus, back to his energized self. “IF IT’S A CHILD, IT MIGHT BE IN DANGER!”

“I agree.”, said Frisk. “I mean... this and the Cinnamon Bunny can’t be a coincidence. And maybe it’s related to the helicopter as well.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”, said MK, looking the human in the eye. “Easy there, man. I don’t know if you forgot, but 99% of the monsters want you dead or captured.”

“i hate to agree with mk.”, said Sans, adjusting his backpack. “but i agree with mk. following a monster’s footprints in your condition is not a wise decision.”

Frisk felt bothered by the monsters reactions, but he had to admit it was probably true. Still, he felt there was something... unique to that situation. Like a call on the back of his mind he felt he couldn’t ignore.

“Hey, they’re child’s footprints, right?”, asked the human. “What harm can a child possibly do?”

MK looked at Frisk with a slight desperation in his eyes, like he wanted to tell something he couldn’t quite translate into words.

“Frisk, man...”, he began. “I don’t think you really understand what happened in the Underground during these last six years. Undyne has brainwashed almost everybody, even little children. They are fighting too and... dude, it’s _terrifying_.”

The yellow monster had a tense look, like they were remembering bad things that they saw in the Underground. Frisk could only imagine the kind of stuff that was told to children about humans. He looked to the skeleton brothers. Papyrus had disappointment showing up on every line of his expression, and Sans closed both his eye sockets, sighing.

“it’s true, buddo.”, he said, opening his eye sockets again. “i told you what happened, but even if i tell you over and over again, you won’t really know how it felt like, ‘cause you weren’t there. besides, the child might not be alone, and in that case we might get ourselves in real trouble.”

Frisk shifted his weight on his feet, uncomfortable. Papyrus wouldn’t say anything, but he knew the skeleton would end up agreeing with the other monsters. He was upset, but there was no use in insisting. He’d have to let it drop.

“Fine.”, said the human, defeated. “Let’s head the other way, then.”

Both Sans and MK nodded in agreement. Papyrus looked at the package he was holding.

“CAN WE TAKE THE CINNAMON BUNNY?”, he asked, with a child-like expectation on his voice.

“sure thing bro, why not?”, replied Sans. “don’t think it’s spoiled, and we’ll need all the food we can get.”

The taller skeleton smiled with the response, and put the Cinnamon Bunny away in his backpack. They seemed to have cheered up with that. Frisk, however, felt it would take a lot more to get him out of his somber mood. To make things worse, his head was still throbbing, like someone was hitting his brain with a hammer.

And so, the four proceeded their travel once again, walking away from the crash site, and away from whoever was near there. Frisk was the only one who looked behind a couple times, expecting maybe to see a glimpse of someone following them.

Nobody really said anything, and apart from Papyrus, who hummed a tune once in a while, they all walked in silence. Frisk thought about how at least those last moments helped to calm their nerves, as now no one was really wanting to start an argument or a fight.

Shortly after, they encountered a clearing. Those weren’t really that hard to find, yet there was something about that one that felt out of place.

“WOWIE!”, said Papyrus. “WHAT A BIG CLEARING!”

Maybe “big” was an understatement – it was gigantic. It made a perfect circle in the middle of the woods. Frisk felt nervous, the clearing bugging his mind. That place didn’t make any sense _at all_ , as the forest they were in wasn’t the type to have such big, bare spaces. The ground looked odd too: it was unnaturally clean compared to the dirty, cracked ground on the rest of the woods.

“There’s something there.”, said MK, tensed up, looking to the northwestern part of the clearing.

Frisk looked too, but didn’t see anything strange or noteworthy. He glanced to the yellow monster, who was still with their eyes fixed on that spot.

“I don’t see anything.”, said the human, though the reptilian still didn’t look away. “MK?”

“Man, just... look there!”, repeated MK. “The air there is... shaking?”

“i see nothing.”, stated Sans.

“ME NEITHER!”, reinforced Papyrus, looking at MK worryingly. “ARE YOU SEEING THINGS? PERHAPS WE SHOULD HAVE SOME REST HERE?”

“i think we should go around this clearing first.”, said Sans. “the brat might be seeing things, but this place _does_ look a bit suspicious to me.”

“Guys, what the hell!?”, said MK, looking desperately to everybody on the group. “How can you not see it? That’s-”

BANG!

The loud noise startled everyone, who jumped in their place. It came from behind, and when Frisk looked, there was a burned spot on the ground behind Papyrus, and a purple smoke was coming out from it. The taller skeleton slowly retreated.

BANG!

This time, the human saw a purple flash zapping in front of his eyes, hitting a nearby tree and causing more smoke to appear.

“we’re under attack!”, said Sans, a sense of urgency on his voice. “we need to..!”

Before he could finish the thought, a variety of magic spells started to swarm around them, forcing them into the clearing. Frisk thought that was probably the attacker’s intention, since they were easier to spot that way, but on the other hand they had more room to dodge. And dodging was something Frisk was really good at.

The magic was cast with a variety of colors, making the scene look chaotic. The human was almost hit a handful of times, but always got away in the last second, and the others seemed to be handling themselves well, too. Sans was the only one who tried to counter attack, sending waves of bones to all directions, since their attackers didn’t seem to stay in the same place for long. Frisk tried to see who they were, but couldn’t identify anything in the forest. It was like there was no one actually there, almost as if the trees were the ones summoning the magic.

“WHO ARE THEY!?”, asked Papyrus, white sparkles missing him by inches.

“i don’t know!”, said Sans, sending another wave of sharp bones into the woods, in the hopes of hitting anyone, though it seemed to have no impact on their enemies attack rate.

Frisk could barely react when he saw a set of spells being cast to the shorter skeleton’s direction. Fortunately, they were quick enough to summon a spinning bone in front of them. The spells hit the bone with an incredible force, knocking Sans back to the ground.

“SANS!”, yelled Papyrus, looking at his brother. “C’MON, DON’T YOU STAY THERE! UP!”

But the human noticed, with an increasing horror, that the skeleton couldn’t stand up anymore. Vines had emerged from the ground, wrapping themselves around Sans’ limbs and keeping him there. The monster struggled for a bit, and then snapped their fingers a couple times, but nothing happened.

“dammit!”, said Sans, frustrated. “i can’t use my shortcuts!”

Frisk kneeled besides them, and grabbed a vine that was on their arm, but felt a sharp pain on his hands as soon as he touched the plant. He looked at them, and saw two cuts that crossed both his palms. The cuts weren’t deep, but a considerable amount of blood was pouring out from them.

Being hurt by a plant wasn’t something the human was unfamiliar with, but Frisk couldn’t help but feel horrified when the vines started to pull Sans into the ground. They were going to bury him alive.

“MK!”, yelled Papyrus, making Frisk look at their direction.

The taller skeleton pushed the yellow monster away from a magic spell and took the hit instead. They were sent flying and fell a few feet away from Sans, who couldn’t raise his head, but still knew what had happened.

“oh my god, pap!?”, called the shorter skeleton, a hint of desperation on his voice. “pap!?”

“I’M FINE!”, replied Papyrus, attempting to stand up but finding themselves unable to do so. The vines had grabbed them too. Nevertheless, Sans sighed with relief.

Now, that was just great.

Frisk looked to the skeleton brothers, panicking. There had to be something he could do, but he couldn’t think straight. Meanwhile, the vines were still pulling Sans down. He looked around, the magic still buzzing around them.

They would die there.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, he heard a loud, sucking sound, and suddenly all the noises from the harmful spells being thrown at them were muffled down. Frisk looked around and saw they were encapsulated in a semi-translucent orange bubble. The spells that hit it simply disappeared with the impact.

Marveled, he looked at MK, who were with their eyes closed, concentrating.

“Did you-”

“Not... now.”, answered the monster, sounding as if they were holding their breath. “Do... something... now..!”

Frisk gulped, but inside he felt his determination growing. MK had given him a chance to save everybody, and he wasn’t going to let it go to waste.

“WOWIE!”, said Papyrus. “THAT’S REALLY IMPRESSIVE!”

Frisk looked at the vines wrapping Sans’ body. The skeleton had stopped fighting them, and was smiling at the human.

“frisk... buddy...”, he said. “go save pap. you can’t save me.”

“Shut up.”, replied the human, still thinking on a way to get the skeletons out of the situation. “I’m gonna save you two.”

“don’t worry about me. i think i can learn how to photosynthesize.”, he replied, winking. “it’s not so bad, there are ‘planty’ of things to do here.”

Papyrus was still struggling to break free from the vines, but they heard what Sans had said and let out a growl.

“SANS, THIS IS _DEFINITELY_ NOT THE TIME!”

Then, the idea hit Frisk. His hair cutting razor. If he couldn’t tear the vines with his hands, maybe a cutting tool was just what he needed.

“Can’t... hold on... much longer...”, mumbled MK, falling to his knees, his forehead frowned with concentration.

Frisk opened his backpack and searched desperately for his razor. There it was. His hands were shaky and he couldn’t grab the razor firmly due to the cuts on his palms, but he wasn’t letting that stop him.

He attempted to cut a vine wrapped around Sans arm, and for a blissful moment he thought it was working. But after several seconds, he noticed the razor wasn’t cutting the plant in the slightest. With his panic increasing once again, he tried harder, but it felt like he was trying to cut iron with a butter knife. He was getting nowhere. Tears of frustration began to form on his eyes.

“heya, bud.”, whispered Sans. His body had sunken more than halfway into the ground, and wasn’t stopping. “it’s okay. please... please save pap. i know you can do it. save him.”

Frisk tossed the razor away, shaking his head. He couldn’t think of anything else. That had been his big idea, but it seemed he had reached a dead end. He couldn’t save them. He couldn’t save anybody.

To make things worse, the bubble disappeared as MK finally fell to the ground, unconscious, exhaustion finally taking the best of them. Frisk felt his stomach burning as he noticed the vines had started to grasp the yellow monster too.

Frisk put his hands on his head, not minding they were bloodied. The magic still buzzed around him, and it was only a matter of time since he’d be hit too. What could he do, what could he do!?

And just like that, it all stopped. The magic stopped being fired at them. The vines that grabbed Sans, Papyrus and MK withered away. It all got really silent. Frisk looked around, confused.

“Oh my god!”, he heard a female voice from somewhere nearby, but he couldn’t see from whom it was. “I can’t believe... it’s..! Sis! Sis!”

Sans stood up from the ground with his bones rattling, looking amused to the hole shaped like him he had left on the ground. Papyrus stood up as well, wiping the dirt away from their battle suit.

“Thank goodness I noticed...”, said the voice again, relieved.

“who are you?”, asked Sans, his voice cracky. He cleared his throat (or whatever skeletons had in their place, anyway). “show yourself.”

Sans had a dangerously calm tone, like they always had whenever they were trying to sound threatening. Frisk, however, was looking at a spot on the clearing ahead of him. The air there was indeed wavy, like MK had pointed out, and it made the things behind it slightly blurry.

“THAT VOICE SOUNDED... FAMILIAR.”, said Papyrus, confused.

“Of course it did.”, sounded another voice, deeper, but clearly female as well. “We were all neighbors, after all.”

Frisk blinked, and in the next moment he had to prick himself to make sure he wasn’t in some sort of bizarre dream. A house had literally appeared out of nowhere, taking the space where the blurry air once was. It was wooden made, but it looked incredibly well kept. Its size was considerable – two floors tall. Now that would be a cabin in the woods to brag about.

Even then, his attention quickly shifted to the two anthropomorphic bunny monsters who were in front of the house, looking at them. One of them had purple fur, and the other one was pink’s. 

“Hiya.”, complimented the purple lady, who Frisk remembered to be the owner of a shop in Snowdin Town. “Sorry about all... _that_. If we knew we’d be visited by the two wacky skeleton brothers from Snowdin, we wouldn’t have attacked.”

“OH, I REMEMBER YOU!”, said Papyrus, cheerfully. “IT’S SO NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AND THIS IS MY BROTHER...”

“spare us the bullshit.”, said Sans, looking at the two bunnies. Papyrus looked shocked to his brother. “you almost _killed_ us.”

“I-it wasn’t on purpose!”, said the pink bunny, who Frisk remembered from an inn in Snowdin too. “We can’t really identify who’s outside because of the protective spells we cast around the house!”

The human noticed they looked apologetic, and really couldn’t help but believe them. Sans, however, didn’t seem to be willing to forget what had just happened.

“well, you could have stopped sooner.”, he said, coldly.

“Then you should thank the kid there if we even stopped.”, replied the purple bunny, crossing her arms and motioning her head towards MK, who was still lying on the ground. “We noticed he used a bubble-shield spell. It’s a very powerful protective charm, and very few monsters can pull that off. We peeked outside to see, noticed it was you, and stopped.”

“We’re really, _really_ sorry!”, said the pink bunny, joining her hands in front of her chest. “Please, come inside so we can talk this through!”

Sans seemed unsure of what to do, and Papyrus put a hand on his brother’s shoulder, supportive. Frisk didn’t know how he felt about all that. Deep inside, he felt the monsters in front of them were being sincere, but it still could be dangerous. Trusting the wrong people could have a high cost in the situation they were in.

“C’mon, Sans.”, said the purple bunny. “We know each other. You know I could never be with Undyne, nor my sister. We apologized. Now come inside. Let us help you.”

The shorter skeleton looked uncomfortable, and glanced a look to Frisk.

“whatcha think, buddy?”

Frisk held his breath. It was the second time Sans would leave an important decision on his hands, but this time the human wasn’t entirely certain of what to do. His first big decision involved letting MK join the group, and he was glad he did it. Now, it was different. He had much less to work with – he’d just have to go with what his gut was telling him.

“I think we can trust them.”, he said. “Besides, MK is in real bad shape. We could use a night here.”

Sans looked at the yellow monster, for the first time with a hint of worry on his eyes. Papyrus quickly kneeled besides them and picked them up, carrying them in his arms.

“okay, you heard him.”, said Sans, looking to the bunny monsters. “but if you try any dirty tricks on us, you’ll have a bad...”

“Yeah, yeah.”, said the purple bunny, cutting Sans’ sentence. “You should know I’ll keep an eye on you too. Specially since you have a human in your group.”

She looked at Frisk when she said that, and the human returned the look, determined not show any signs of insecurity.

“Great!”, said the pink bunny. “Let’s go in, then!”

Turning around, the two rabbits led Frisk, Sans and Papyrus, who carried an unconscious MK, inside the big wooden house.

* * *

 

“WOWIE! THIS IS JUST LIKE IN SNOWDIN!” 

Frisk agreed with the taller skeleton wholeheartedly. If he didn’t know better, he could have as well thought they had taken a portal back to the happy snowy little town of Snowdin. The furniture was almost all made of wood, and it was tidy and clean, smelling of lavender. 

They walked a small corridor and reached the living room. It was relatively small, but felt cozy with its checkered sofas in front of a fireplace, who Frisk thought would be great to sit by in the winter. From that room, the human saw some doors, although he didn’t know where they took, and the stairs that led to a mezzanine on the second floor.

“yep. like snowdin, in the good ol’ days at least.”, said Sans, looking around nostalgically. “how did you find this place?”

The purple bunny put her hands on her hips as she glanced back to the group behind her.

“Like you did. We travelled, and travelled, and travelled, until we found this place. We were really lucky to find it, so you must understand why we set all those traps outside and concealed the house with magic.”

So they weren’t being attacked by anyone – those had been all traps they had triggered. Frisk felt it was smart to keep possible threats away with a tight security, but he didn’t feel any happy when said security had worked against him.

“So you’re not fighting?”, asked the human. “In the war, I mean?”

“You’d be surprised by how many monsters are not fighting in this war, human.”, she answered, looking at him. “A lot of us are just hiding, waiting for it to end. And, for the better or the worse, it will end. Someday.”

Frisk wasn’t comfortable with the purple bunny’s gaze. It felt like she was looking inside his soul, staring at all his inner demons.

“you have any reason to believe that?”, asked Sans, doing the equivalent of raising a brow. “do you know something?”

“A little.”, she answered, looking at the skeleton. “Bits and pieces of information we have gathered in the past two months.”

“We can discuss this over dinner.”, said the pink bunny, smiling. “Come, you must be tired. I’ll show your rooms upstairs.”

“I’ll take care of dinner tonight.”, said the other bunny, sighing. “Will call you when it’s ready.” 

With that, she walked through one of the doors on the living room, while the other lead the group upstairs. Papyrus was extra careful not to accidentally hit anything with MK.

“This house is pretty big, so there are a lot of rooms.”, she said when they reached the second floor. Past the mezzanine, it consisted basically of a corridor with more doors. Some paintings were hung on the walls.

“WHY WAS A PLACE LIKE THIS VACANT?”, asked Papyrus, curious.

“Maybe it was a camp house.” Frisk guessed. “If the humans who owned this place haven’t showed up yet, I don’t think they ever will.”

The mood seemed to get darker as the human said that. As he had to worry with his group’s survival everyday, it was easy to forget they were in a war, where people had actually been killed mercilessly, perhaps even cruelly. Or maybe he was just becoming numb to the feeling.

“Here’s a room.”, said the bunny, opening a door and showing a cozy, nicely furnished bedroom, with a bunk bed by its corner.

“MK and I can take this.”, said Frisk, looking to Papyrus. “You can put him on the lower bed. Let him rest for a while.”

“OKAY!”, said Papyrus, proceeding to accommodate the yellow monster on the bed. MK moved slightly, and Frisk got worried that maybe the shield spell had been too much for them.

They got out from the room, Papyrus closing the door silently as the bunny led them to the next one. It was decorated with superhero posters on the walls, as well as with shelves full of toys. Two small beds were on the middle, indicating that room once belonged to young siblings.

“WOWIE, THAT’S THE _COOLEST_ BEDROOM!”, said Papyrus, looking marveled at the posters. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THINK THIS IS AWESOME! IT EVEN HAS TWO BEDS! SANS CAN STAY HERE TOO!”

Sans seemed to like the idea, and grinned.

“yep. i like it too. if you have nightmares you won’t even need to step outside of the room to sleep in my bed.”

“S-SANS!”, said Papyrus, visibly embarrassed. “I ONLY DID THAT WHEN I WAS A CHILD!”

“a 19-year-old child?”, replied the shorter skeleton, holding laughter.

“SANS, YOU..! YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T TELL ANYBODY!”, said Papyrus, annoyed. If skeletons could turn red, Frisk reckoned the taller one would surely do.

“heh, sorry bro. it slipped.”, said Sans, shrugging and looking to the side mischievously. “it’s settled then. this room is ours.”

Sans threw himself on one of the beds, relaxing. Frisk caught a glimpse of the bunny with her hand in front of her mouth, trying to conceal laughter, and it made the human smile a little. She nodded to the skeletons.

“Okay. I’ll help my sister with dinner. You should rest a while.”, she informed, looking at the brothers and then at the human. Then, she saw something on him that made her smile turn into a look of concern. “Oh... your hands! You’re hurt!”

Frisk looked at his palms. The blood had dried, but the cuts were still visible. It didn’t sting anymore, although it did feel sore.

“We should clean it!”, said the bunny. “We have antiseptic and bandages in the bathroom. Come with me.”

“THEN I’LL GO HELP IN THE KITCHEN!”, said Papyrus, with a familiar excitement on his voice. “THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL MAKE YOU ALL A WONDERFUL DINNER! I HOPE YOU HAVE SPAGHETTI HERE!”

“That’s great!”, replied the bunny, smiling. “I’m looking forward for it, thank you!”

“YOU’RE WELCOME! NYEH HEH HEH!”, laughed the skeleton, looking proud of himself.

The three exited to the corridor, while Sans kept laid down on his bed. Papyrus took the stairs to the first floor, humming happily as he did so. The pink bunny opened the door to the bathroom and indicated the human to go inside.

It was a simple bathroom, with a shower, a toilet, a sink and a small cabinet. The pink bunny opened it and picked up a bottle of antiseptic, a pack of cotton balls and some bandages, leaving them by the sink. The human was more impressed than ever – the house was even well supplied. The two sisters were really lucky to have stumbled upon it. 

“Can I see it?”, she asked, and Frisk showed his palms. Her face contorted a little as she analyzed the cuts. “Oh my... were these caused by our traps?”

It was one of those situations the human thought it was better to lie than hurt someone’s feelings, but he didn’t feel dishonesty was the way to go there. He nodded.

“The vines.”, he answered. She looked a bit down before picking up a cotton ball and pouring the antiseptic on it. “Um... at least it’s not deep, so it’s nothing to worry about.”

“I knew they were lethal.”, said the bunny, starting to clean the cut on Frisk’s right hand, making it sting for a moment. “But I didn’t think they were _that_ lethal. Well, maybe I was just being naive. My sis and I have always been really good at offensive magic. We just... never needed to use it up until now.”

She threw the bloody cotton ball away and picked another to repeat the procedure on his left hand. Frisk thought about how that war was messed up. Monsters who had never wanted any conflict were brought to the surface to fight. He knew some of them escaped, but a lot have died too. He felt his guilt growing inside again.

“Sometimes, we have to fight.”, she said, wrapping each of Frisk’s wounds with the bandages. “Even if it’s for self defense, I don’t really like it. But I’ve done it, and I know I’ll do it again. What keeps me from going insane with guilt is knowing that there are others who are depending on me.”

Frisk felt his mouth dry, his guilt coming back to him. He had fought before, and that was basically the reason Undyne had declared war on humanity. However, now he felt he couldn’t fight ever again. It would be fine if he was the only one who could get on a tight situation because of it, but the human knew better. What if it came down to Sans, Papyrus and MK’s lives depending him, and he couldn’t do the necessary to protect them? The world had turned into a “kill or be killed” state of things, yet he wasn’t willing to play by the rules. Maybe he had learned his lesson in the Underground.

Or maybe he was just a coward.

“Well, there you go.”, said the bunny, smiling to Frisk. He closed his fists and opened them again several times, appreciating the fact they didn’t hurt anymore. “The wounds will probably leave scars, but that’s not so bad, is it? It’s part of your story now.”

“I guess.”, replied the human, looking at her gentle smile. “Hey, what’s your name?”

She seemed to be surprised by the question, and then put her hand on her forehead, laughing nervously.

“Oh god, did I forget to introduce myself?”, she asked. “Where are my manners? Sorry, Bernadette Hunnigan is the name. You can call me just Berna though. Yours?”

Frisk felt the sides of his mouth contracting into a smile automatically. A bunny called Bernadette Hunnigan wasn’t something you would find on your everyday routine.

“Frisk.”, he answered.

“Alright, Frisk.”, she said, smiling kindly. “I’ll see how dinner is going. You should rest a while, too.”

“Okay.”

She left the bathroom, leaving Frisk alone there. The human sighed and looked in the mirror. His face was dirty and sweaty. He couldn’t remember the last time he had taken a shower. During the past month, every time they came across a clean water source, they’d soak a piece of cloth and use it to clean themselves. It served it’s purpose of taking the heavy filth away, but it was nothing compared to what a shower would do. Besides, Frisk thought he and his group probably smelled terribly, and were just used to it.

With that in mind, he turned the sink’s faucet, and to his surprise limpid water came out from it. He didn’t miss that opportunity, and washed his face. It was a small thing to do, but it felt refreshing. He almost felt like someone else entirely after he was done.

Closing the door behind him, the human left the bathroom. Looking at the windows, he noticed it was already getting dark outside. Then, his attention got caught by the door slightly ajar near the bathroom – and the small white bunny behind it looking at him behind it. Frisk had forgotten about them, but the memory came fresh to his head: they were the pink bunny’s child. Knowing they had survived the war together with their mother made Frisk feel a soothing happiness. He smiled kindly.

“Hey there.”, he said, trying to be friendly. “What’s y-”

The white bunny quickly closed the door when they saw Frisk had noticed them.

“Okay...”, he said, feeling slightly hurt.

It was a reasonable reaction, though. In the point of view of the little monster, they were all strangers – specially the human. Of course they didn’t trust him at all – they had no reason to.

Frisk then proceeded to his room. MK was still unconscious, but now they were snoring lightly, which made the human feel better. Climbing to the upper bed of the bulk, he remembered the purple bunny saying something about the shield spell they had pulled off was a complex and difficult. It probably drained their magic, making them faint from exhaustion. The human wondered when they had learned it.

He laid on the bed – the most comfortable bed he had ever laid on – staring at the ceiling. For a moment, he had no worries as he felt truly safe for the first time in a long time. Maybe that was just what he needed.

He yawned as sleep easily came to him.

* * *

 

He woke up sensing a familiar smell. Dinner was ready, it seemed. The human rubbed his eyes before sitting up and climbing down the bulk bed. MK seemed to be in heavy sleep, and he decided to leave them be. 

As he left the room and entered the corridor, the smell got stronger. It was delicious, and Frisk’s stomach growled with hunger. Yet – the smell seemed to do more than remind the human they hadn’t eaten in a while. It felt... nostalgic.

The lights were on, and the human wondered where the electricity came from. Normally, he’d worry about the house calling attention with all that clarity, but he knew that with the hiding charms around it they would be safe, specially at night.

He got to the first floor, and by following the smell he managed to find the kitchen. The smell came from a pie baking in the oven. The kitchen, like the rest of the house, was tastefully furnished. A rather large table was on the center, and sitting around it was everyone besides MK – even the little white bunny was present. They looked at him when he entered.

“heya, bud.”, complimented Sans. “did ya rest a little?”

Frisk nodded, taking a seat besides the shorter skeleton.

“HUMAN!”, said Papyrus, with a somewhat annoyed look. “THEY HAVE SPAGHETTI HERE, BUT THEY DIDN’T WANT TO COOK IT! SO INSTEAD WE MADE... PIE.”

“Papyrus, will you stop complaining?”, asked the purple bunny, glancing a disapproving look to the taller skeleton. “I thought it would be a nice dish to share with some fellow travelers.” 

“EXACTLY, IT’S NICE!”, replied Papyrus. “BUT MY SPAGHETTI WOULDN’T BE JUST NICE... IT WOULD BE _AMAZING_!”

“I’m sure it would.”, she said, chuckling. “How about we cook it tomorrow?”

When she said that, Sans quickly sat more upright. It was clear he had something to say.

“sorry bonnie.”, he said to the purple bunny. “but we don’t plan on staying for long. we’ll just spend the night and then go. besides, we don’t want to waste your supplies.”

Frisk couldn’t help but feel a slight disappointment. They had found a really nice place to stay. Couldn’t they just forget everything and be safe at least for some days?

“But why?”, asked Berna. “Where are you heading?”

Sans looked at the human, who shrugged, and then at Papyrus, who simply nodded. Sighing, the skeleton started to patter with his fingers on the table.

“we’re after undyne.”

There was a moment of silence.

“What?”, asked the purple bunny, presumably called Bonnie. “ _Undyne_? Are you insane!? Why would you do that?”

“the human can stop her.”, said Sans, looking back at the bunny’s gaze.

Bonnie looked at Frisk, her eyebrow raised. Frisk thought she must have been confused, considering the human still looked like someone who had just woken up. He felt pathetic.

“How?”, she asked.

“he has a powerful soul. if there is anyone who can stop her, it’s him.”

Frisk didn’t believe that – specially if he considered his unwillingness to fight, but he didn’t say anything.

“I believe that.”, she said, looking at Frisk. “I remember you, human. I didn’t know what you were until after you left the Underground. But I did sense something powerful in you. However... things have changed.”

“Sis is right.”, said Berna. “Monsters have artificially increased their strength to have a chance against humans. Don’t tell me you forgot about all the potions and armor modifications the royal scientist invented to help our Royal Guard, Sans.”

“i didn’t.”, replied the shorter skeleton. “but the basic principle is still the same. besides, he’s got our help, so i’m sure we can do it.”

Yet another silence, in which the two lapine sisters looked at each other. It was clear they didn’t believe what Sans was saying. Frisk didn’t really believe it either, and Papyrus seemed to be in conflict on whose side to take.

“but i wanted to know about those ‘bits and pieces of information’ you said you heard earlier.”, said Sans, changing to a more relaxed position on his chair.

Bonnie joined her hands in front of her, resting them on the table. It reminded Frisk of Mrs. Magda – the late manager of the orphanage he used to live.

“Well, it might just interest you, since one of them is actually about Undyne herself. But first, it’s about the situation of the war.”, she started. “It seems many monsters had fallen down already, but they are taking as many humans as they can with them before doing so. That means things are still even for both sides.”

“interesting. when did you hear that?”, inquired Sans.

“In a nearby town, just before we found this house.”, she answered. “no more than two weeks ago. Doubt things have changed. Heard it from a group of humans who were discussing about it. Now, about Undyne...”

The purple bunny glanced at the oven before continuing.

“It seems her magic has gotten more powerful than we previously thought.”

“well yeah.”, said Sans, shrugging. “i mean, she can enhance or block someone’s magic as long as she is within reach.”

“It’s more than that.”, replied Bonnie. “Listen, have you never asked yourself why didn’t humans send reinforcements? Why it seems their government doesn’t care _at all_ about what is going on?”

Frisk had actually wondered about that. On the rare occasions they met humans, they were always isolated groups who didn’t seem to get any outside support. To be honest, he was always half expecting a nuke to drop on the region. Humans and their quick ways to resolve conflicts.

“i’m listening.”

“Undyne has cast several protective spells on the region. It makes human technology fail while on air or water. That makes sending quick reinforcements that much harder, as you can imagine.”

The shorter skeleton looked to Papyrus, and then to Frisk, who immediately understood.

“The helicopter we saw earlier.”, he said. Almost unconsciously, he looked to the white bunny. The small footprints... could it be..?

“welp, so that’s what happened, huh.”, said Sans, looking to the ceiling.

However, it seemed that wasn’t all Bonnie had to tell them.

“There is one more thing.”, she said. “The same protective spells she cast have another effect. As you already know, humans don’t turn into dust when they die. Their bodies just stay... there.”

The human looked nervously at Papyrus, who was paying attention to what Bonnie was saying. A month earlier, the taller skeleton demonstrated they didn’t know about that, and neither Frisk nor Sans had the heart to tell them the truth. He wondered if they had discovered it by themselves over the past two months, and if that was the case, if it was for the best they had discovered it alone.

“When a human dies, their souls manage to persist mostly intact. But some leftover elements from the souls – for example, determination – might keep on the body. Well, Undyne’s magic is actually extracting it from the bodies and transferring to her. Which means...”

“she grows more powerful everyday.”, concluded Sans. “geez, we really need to start moving as soon as possible.”

“Is that why the corpses disappear after a while?”, asked Frisk. He had not seen that many, which was weird considering the war they were in. However, if Undyne was magically extracting leftover determination from them, it was very possible their disappearance was due to a side effect.

“Probably.”, she answered.

Before they could dwell much more on the matter, a ‘ding’ came from the oven, indicating the pie was ready. Bonnie stood up from her chair and took it out. Its smell was wonderful.

She barely put the pie on the middle of the table and everyone around was sort of competing to get a slice. It was a fun thing to do, and it helped to lighten up the mood after the conversation they just had.

“WOWIE!”, said Papyrus as he chewed a piece. “IT IS REALLY GOOD! OF COURSE, WITH THE HELP OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS, IT COULDN’T TURN OUT ANY LESS THAN THAT! NYEH HEH HEH!”

“s’re b’o.”, said Sans, his mouth full. “y’re the cool’st.”

“THANK YOU BROTHER! BUT PLEASE REFRAIN TO SPEAK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!”

Bonnie seemed to have fun watching the two brothers.

“You two manage to stay relatively the same even in this hell we are in, huh?”, she asked.

“WELL, OF COURSE!”, stated Papyrus. “WE HAVE TO KEEP OUR SPIRITS UP! ONLY THAT WAY CAN WE MOVE FORWARD!”

“Momma, I really liked the pie!”, said the white bunny. Surprisingly, they had almost the same voice they had when Frisk first met them in the Underground, even though they were supposed to be six years older. “I don’t even know the flavor, but I wanna another slice!” 

Berna laughed gently before cutting another piece for her child.

“It’s butterscotch-cinnamon, sweetheart. It’s a traditional recipe for monsters.”, she answered. “But don’t go thinking it will always be like this for dinner!”

Frisk could hear the growling from the child and the chatter from Sans, Papyrus and Bonnie getting distant. As soon as he tasted the pie he recognized it, but hearing someone else say it brought back many emotions he thought he had already gotten over with. No, it was never going to be simple, was it? He hadn’t overcome his guilt yet. Maybe he never would.

Around him, the monsters seemed to be enjoying the sweet flavor of a finely baked butterscotch-cinnamon pie. To Frisk, however, it just didn’t taste as good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I've made a playlist with songs that inspired this fic (or at least helped me through writer's block – which happened fairly often :P). If you're interested, you can check it out here (copy and paste on the URL): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7P29utN2iJ9RbL1IV01WZoIT_t8elIQE


	3. Rain

Frisk woke up with a scream stuck in his throat, his breath erratic and his heart pounding.

He put his hand on his chest, trying to calm down. Breathing in. It had just been a nightmare. Breathing out. None of it had been real.

It was a bizarre one, though. He remembered it had been in first person perspective, but he couldn’t control his actions. He felt... empty inside. He remembered Papyrus was in his dream. Undyne too, but she was different. More dangerous, more fearsome and maybe more... heroic? Frisk couldn’t make any sense of it, but perhaps there was no use in trying. It was natural of dreams to be weird and unexplainable.

However, that didn’t make him feel any better. There was something about that dream that filled him with dread – like he was dealing with a particularly frightening ghost that came back to haunt him.

Perhaps having a glass of water downstairs could calm him down a little.

Being as silent as possible, Frisk climbed down the bulk bed. The curtains were closed, which meant the room was truly dark and he had to grope his way out. He heard MK snoring, and wondered how they would react waking up and finding themselves at that place.

He reached the door and carefully turned the knob making as little noise as possible. The moon cast a pale light on the corridor, making things easier to see in there. Walking on the tip of his toes not to wake anybody up, he climbed down the stairs to the first floor.

As he approached the kitchen door, he heard voices. He didn’t know what time it was, but figured it was pretty late. What were they doing by that hour? Well, maybe some company would actually be nice after that scary dream of his.

“Why do you trust him?”, he heard Bonnie say.

Frisk stopped where he was, his hand almost having touched the door. Those words didn’t mean much alone, but he had the feeling they were about...

“he’s good, bonnie.”, replied Sans. “i can feel it. he wants this all to end.”

“I... wouldn’t be so sure of that.”, stated the bunny methodically.

That didn’t surprise him. Frisk had the feeling that Bonnie wasn’t entirely trustful of him, and could understand that, really. Still, hearing her actually say it out loud – to Sans, even – was another story.

“what do you mean?”, asked Sans calmly.

“I mean that... I don’t know if they want this war to end.”

Frisk frowned. What was she thinking? Of course he wanted that nightmare to end. Who didn’t?

“Sans, don’t look at me with that face.”, stated Bonnie. “You have doubts too, right? It just doesn’t fit – he’s probably the only human, and I _mean_ it, who is traveling with monsters. Any other would be terrified of this very idea, but he seems to be more at ease with monsters than he’d be with other humans.”

“i know where you’re going.”, said Sans, sighing. “you think that they want this war to go on so that monsters have a chance of winning... and humanity of perishing?”

The human leaned carefully against the kitchen door, desperate to hear more.

“Precisely. You thought about it too, right?”, replied Bonnie. “Sans, what you told me about him... I mean, _god_ , Monster Kid killed someone he knew and he forgave them just like that!? Would he ever have forgiven that woman if it had been the other way around?”

“dunno...”, said Sans, sounding lost in thought. “i don’t think so, no. maybe you are right, maybe they _do_ hate humanity. but the human is not stupid. it’s also possible that monsters are the ones who will lose the war, which is why, if our deductions are correct, they want to stop undyne.”

“Sans, I don’t think you get how messed up that kid is.”

“bonnie, you don’t get how messed up _i_ am, and you’re still talking to me.”

“This is different!”, said Bonnie, raising her voice slightly. “How can you trust someone who’s willing to betray their kind just like that?”

“you and i are also betraying our kind, and you don’t seem so worked up about that.”, said Sans, his voice cynical, yet still serene. “you are being a hypocrite.”

There was a silence, long enough for Frisk to notice that he was feeling his stomach burning with what he had just heard.

“I just want this to end.”, she said, finally. “And I’m sure you want this to end, too. Maybe not because of the entire monsterkind, but surely because of your brother. Now, the human... they can say they want the war to end, but when time comes, will they do what they have to, or will they just run away and merely watch the events unfold?”

Frisk closed his eyes, afraid of what the skeleton would answer.

“i don’t know. what you’re saying is very plausible.”, answered Sans, and the human felt his heart sink. “i’ll just have to believe in him, y’know. besides, he’s still guilty about having killed the queen in the underground.”

“Regret is not a reliable fuel to make anyone do the right thing.”, said Bonnie. “If anything, it causes the exact opposite to happen.”

“perhaps.”, stated Sans simplistically. “i’ll talk to them eventually. they do listen to me, if that’s any good.”

Another silence. Frisk felt he had just been bludgeoned on the head. He didn’t know what to think about what he just heard. He knew now what people meant by saying that some things were better left unsaid... or in this case, unheard.

“Sans, since Undyne started to militarize the Underground six years ago, you and I were part of the few who thought waging war against humanity would be a poor decision.”, reminded Bonnie. “And as it turns out we were right. What I mean to say is that I’m not gonna try to convince you to stop... whatever you are planning, but please... be careful.”

“don’t worry.”, said Sans, yawning. “you can’t say careful without ‘sans’ in the same sentence.”

“If that was supposed to be a joke, it was a terrible one.”

“heh, sorry. i’m just tired.”

“Let’s get some sleep then. It’s late.”

Frisk heard the two monsters standing up from the chairs and silently hid behind the sofa. Shortly after, Bonnie and Sans crossed the living room, proceeding to climb up the stairs to their respective rooms, unaware of the human.

He shouldn’t have listened to that. His mind was now filled with doubts about Sans and the whole situation – and also about himself. He was sure he believed the end of the war would be the best ending for everybody – humans and monsters. Maybe they could even achieve peace. It would be hard, but it would be possible if they all tried, brick by brick.

Did he really think everybody deserved a happy ending, though?

* * *

 

“Frisk, what the heck is this place?”

The human opened his eyes. He hadn’t been really sleeping at least for the past hour, but he didn’t feel like standing up and meeting everyone else. The things he had heard during his eavesdropping were still on his mind, replaying like a particularly annoying movie roll.

“Frisk?”

He looked down to the lower bed. MK stared at him, confused but also relieved by seeing that the human was alright. He could hear the sound of the pouring rain outside, and it made him feel even more melancholic.

“This feels a bit like Snowdin.”, said MK, sitting on his bed and looking across the room. A white light outside entered from small gaps on the curtains, lighting the place a little. 

“Yeah.”, said Frisk, distracted. “It does, huh.”

There was a moment in which the human thought the monster was trying to piece things together.

“We aren’t in Snowdin.”, said MK, looking at the human again, a small hint of doubt in his eyes. “Are we?”

“No.”, replied Frisk, sounding distant. “It’s... a camp house. Those two sisters from Snowdin, the one who ran an inn and the other a shop, they found this place and settled down here. We activated some traps they had set around the house when we approached the clearing. But they stopped when they noticed it was us, and invited us to stay the night.”

“Sweet.”, said MK, yawning. “I cast a shield spell, right? But it really worn me out... how long did I sleep?”

“Don’t know. 15 hours I guess.”

The yellow monster turned their head to face Frisk, now paying more attention to him. He hoped he wasn’t looking too down.

“Man, are you okay?”, they asked, and Frisk cursed himself mentally.

They looked concerned, but Frisk thought it would be no use to make them worry about that. Besides, MK wasn’t the one he wished to speak to about Sans and Bonnie’s conversation.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”, said the human, sure that it didn’t sound very convincing, but fortunately MK didn’t press him on the matter. “Let’s go have breakfast.”

Frisk got out of his bed, climbing down the ladder, while MK simply stood up, suddenly excited.

“Whoa, _breakfast_!?”, they gave a big, genuine smile. “We haven’t had those in ages!”

Their sudden happiness managed to make Frisk smile a little. He had grown used to not having three regular meals a day, but even him had to admit the prospective was nice.

As long as he didn’t have to eat the pie, that was.

* * *

 

Breakfast was noisy and cheerful. It almost felt like they were having a family vacation rather than hiding from war. Frisk was glad everybody was getting motivated again, but couldn’t make himself feel better. It was like everything good had left him – his desires and dreams, his determination – and there were only fear, guilt and doubt left. And only by themselves, those feelings grew to occupy more space inside him.

He finished his meal early and excused himself, telling he was going to get ready as the plan was to leave the place and continue traveling. As soon as he entered the bedroom, though, he simply sat on MK’s bed, looking at the rain that feel outside. He wasn’t really feeling up to get ready to leave, but it wasn’t like there was much he had to do, either. Everything he needed was on his backpack. He wondered if the sisters would give them any supplies if they asked.

There was a knock on the door, which was weird since it was open. Frisk looked and there it was Papyrus. The skeleton took a step forward solemnly, in an almost comical way.

“HUMAN!”, he started. “UM... AS IT IS RAINING, SANS SAID IT WOULD BE OKAY FOR US TO SPEND ANOTHER NIGHT HERE! IT SEEMS THIS RAIN WILL LAST ALL DAY LONG...”

Frisk thought that hearing that should have made him feel better, but it didn’t. He nodded to show Papyrus he understood, but the skeleton didn’t seem to be done yet.

“WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, RIGHT?”, they said, expectantly. “WE CAN HAVE SPAGHETTI TONIGHT! NYEH HEH HEH!”

Frisk forced a smile, but he was sure it looked horrible, because Papyrus frowned instinctively when they saw that. They quickly recomposed though, and started to rub a hand against the other, as if thinking about something to say. The human looked the other way, attempting to hide a frustrated look. He just wished to be left alone.

“HUMAN...”, they started again. “THERE IS A MATTER I WANTED TO DISCUSS WITH YOU...”

The human looked to the skeleton again, this time curious. Papyrus looked a bit nervous, and Frisk wasn’t used to see the skeleton like that. Something was bothering them, and he wanted to know what it was. They walked towards the human and sat next to him on the bed, looking to the floor.

“UM... REMEMBER...”, began Papyrus, still unsure of how to proceed. “REMEMBER WHEN I TOLD YOU ABOUT HOW I THOUGHT IT WAS WEIRD HUMANS WERE JUST LYING DOWN WITH KETCHUP OVER THEM, AND HOW IT SEEMED THE STREETS WERE ALL STAINED WITH KETCHUP?”

Frisk shivered and looked to the window again. Of course he remembered. It happened on the day the skeleton brothers had found him in an empty town – the day after the war had started.

“THAT... WASN’T KETCHUP, WAS IT?”

It sounded more like an affirmation than a question. The human looked to the taller skeleton. They had a sad and disappointed look, but for some reason they were smiling. Frisk simply shook his head.

“I’VE SUSPECTED THAT FOR SOME TIME NOW.”, stated Papyrus, looking at Frisk’s bandages on his palms. “WHY HAVEN’T YOU TOLD ME ANYTHING?”

If Frisk was to be honest, he’d say he had been afraid of Papyrus’ reaction with the information. That he wanted to preserve what innocence they managed to keep in that cruel world – but the human knew, in the end, that it had been a dumb decision. Everyone had to face reality in the current state of things, and the taller skeleton was no exception – but fortunately, they were willing to do it.

“LISTEN, HUMAN...”, continued Papyrus. “I’M AN ADULT, OKAY? YOU SHOULDN’T BE HIDING THINGS FROM ME. YOU DON’T NEED TO PROTECT ME THAT WAY. BESIDES, SANS KEEPS THINGS FROM ME ALREADY, YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT TOO!”

The human had nothing to say. The skeleton was completely and undeniably right. 

“JUST... PROMISE ME YOU WON’T TRY TO HIDE ANYTHING FROM ME AGAIN, OKAY?”

He felt his mouth dry, remembering the conversation he had with Sans at the shore some days before. Nevertheless, he looked Papyrus in the eyes before nodding in agreement.

“Promise.”, he answered. The skeleton smiled kindly and pat the human in the shoulder.

“THANK YOU, HUMAN!”, they said, standing up. “I’LL GO SEE IF THE LADIES NEED ANY HELP WITH ANYTHING HERE! SEE YOU!”

And with that, the skeleton cheerfully exited the room, humming that same tune they would hum every now and then. It had a funny rhythm, like a march song that came straight from a cartoon. It matched Papyrus’ personality perfectly. 

He looked to the window again, gazing at the rain that fell. He still felt sad and demotivated, but at least now he could feel a tiny little ball of hope inside him. Maybe everything would turn out alright in the end.

Some time passed before the human started to have the feeling there was yet another presence in the bedroom. He looked to the door, expecting to see MK, or maybe Sans, but found the white rabbit – Berna’s child – instead. They were holding a small package which Frisk recognized to be a Cinnamon Bunny, identical to the one Papyrus found in the crash site. They looked shy and unsure of what to do.

“Um... hey.”, they greeted, looking more to the pastry than to Frisk. “May I come in?”

Frisk could detect they were slightly afraid of him, and couldn’t blame them for that. But he decided to show there was nothing to be afraid of.

“Sure.”, he replied, smiling, and it came much more naturally this time. “What you got there?”

The rabbit walked to Frisk’s direction in small, careful footsteps, still looking more to the Cinnamon Bunny than to him. They stopped in front of him and offered it.

“It’s a ‘Cinnamon Bunny’.”, they answered. “Aunt Bonnie bakes those. They are really good. Momma said you were looking a bit sad and told me to give you one.”

 _God_ , was he that transparent? He should be more careful in the future. Nevertheless, he decided to take the pastry, looking to the package. They were just like the one they had found the day before, no doubt about it. That meant...

“That’s really nice of her. Tell her thanks for me.”, he said, smiling kindly, while the white rabbit nodded. “You look cool, too. What’s your name?”

The compliment seemed to get through the lapine, their stance changing to a more relaxed one.

“Boone.”, they said. “What’s yours?”

“Frisk.”, the human replied. “I think this is a really nice house, Boone. But how did you manage to keep electricity in here?”

The human asked that more as a way to pick the white rabbit’s interest, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t even a tiny bit curious about that. He hadn’t seen real, functioning electricity since the war had started – and to find it on an abandoned camp house was a bit odd.

“Oh, that was mom!”, replied Boone, their eyes sparkling with pride. “She used her magic to activate a thing that she and aunt Bonnie found behind the house! What was it called..? Oh, right, a ‘genenator’!”

Magic seemed to be a common answer to explain all sorts of things monsters did – apparently, it could even activate “genenators”. He tried to conceal a snort by coughing, looking at the Cinnamon Bunny, thinking of another thing he wanted to ask the white rabbit about.

“So, magic explains anything, right?”, he said, tilting the pastry in front of his eyes. “Can it explain how was it we found a Cinnamon Bunny exactly like this one in the forest, yesterday?”

That obviously took the rabbit monster by surprise – they opened their mouth intending to reply, but closed it shortly after and looked to the ground.

“Please don’t tell my mom. I like to walk around because there’s nothing to do here. It’s boring.” they said, their voice low and shameful. “I always come back without anybody noticing.”

“We found it near a wreckage.”, said Frisk, taking care not to mention the word “helicopter”, as he doubted Boone would understand. “Did you see it?”

“There was something catching fire there.”, they replied. “When I saw it, I ran away. I must have dropped the Cinnamon Bunny then. I didn’t have anything to do with it! Honest!”

“Hey, don’t sweat, I believe in you.”, said Frisk, his smile turning a bit mischievous. “I also won’t tell your mom. I’ve done my count of running away in the past, too.”

Boone looked up to the human again, smiling.

“You’re cool.”, they said, making Frisk chuckle. “Have you fought many bad guys? In this war?”

He thought for a moment. Who were the bad guys? Humans? Monsters? No – Frisk knew better than that. In a war, there weren’t things like “heroes” and “villains”, only “losers”. But he was talking to a child, and had been enjoying the conversation. It wouldn’t hurt to play along.

“Yeah, I have.”, he said, making the best brave face he could manage. “I saved my friends countless times during the past two months!”

Boone was clearly impressed, although not entirely convinced. They glanced a skeptical look to the human, eager to know more.

“Really?”, they asked. “How’d you do that? Can you do magic?”

“No, but...”, Frisk thought for a moment, then pointed to his head. “I saved them using my wits. You know what they say, brains over muscles... or magic.”

“You’re too bruised to be really smart.”, they said blatantly.

Right in the ego.

“Hey, I am _very_ smart, ok?”, he replied, still smiling. “Don’t judge a book through its cover!”

Frisk could tell the lapine still wasn’t convinced, but at least they seemed to be more at ease with his presence. They looked at him from top to bottom, thinking of something. The human merely waited.

“Come with me.”, they suddenly said, walking out of the room. Frisk looked at the doorway, puzzled, and after a while Boone reappeared, with an excited look in their eyes. “Come on! While the grown-ups are still in the kitchen!”

Frisk stood up hesitantly, but followed the rabbit. They both went down to the first floor on the tip of their toes. The human heard chatter coming from the kitchen, so there wouldn’t be anybody in another part of the house at least for a little while. Boone led him to the entrance, and opened the door.

“Wait, are we going outside?”, asked Frisk, looking to the pouring rain. “We’ll get soaked!”

The lapine monster made a dismissive noise with their mouth.

“Relax, we are just going to the back of the house.”, they replied.

“What’s on the back of the house?”, asked Frisk, curious.

“I’ll show you. C’mon!”, commanded Boone, stepping outside. Frisk followed them.

They ran around the house, Frisk keeping his hand over his head in a futile attempt of maintaining himself somewhat dry. He noticed everything a few feet away from him seemed to blurry and mend with the background, making it hard to see. So that was the collateral effect of protective charms – one that almost cost his and his group’s lives. 

Boone led him to a shed close to the cabin, and proceeded to open it. It seemed to be unlocked as the lapine did so with ease, and Frisk walked inside. The rabbit entered after him, closing the door behind.

It was a small shed, with a simple desk with some rusted tools on it by its back. However, what Boone wanted to show him wasn’t on the desk, but above it.

“I saw humans using things like that one.”, they said, looking at the shotgun hanging on the wall.

Frisk felt his heart race and his head get a little dizzy as he approached it. The gun looked usable, to say the least, and even if Frisk didn’t know how to fire, it would be useful to have it for self defense. He often felt that, being the only in the group who couldn’t do magic, he was the most vulnerable one. A firearm surely would turn things around. But did he really want to carry a shotgun with him?

He looked to the desk and spotted something among the tools that he hadn’t seen before – a small handgun. It showed signs of time, but looked fine otherwise. He picked it up, and was surprised by how light it felt. Maybe that would be a more sensible option to pick – not nearly as powerful, but easier to use, and it could provide him with the defense means he just needed.

“You can defend your friends better, now!”, said Bonnie. “Take it, it’s not like we’ll use it anyway.”

Frisk glanced at the bunny monster, who had a happy, confident look. They had trusted him way to quickly to show him something like that. Of course the human had no intention of harming them, but if in his place there had been someone with ill intentions... things probably wouldn’t have turned out nicely.

It was tempting to grab at least the handgun, but Frisk didn’t want to make the wrong impression nor get Boone in trouble for what they’d done. The best thing to do was to leave everything where it was and...

“I should ask your mother and your aunt for permission to take it.”, he replied. “When we leave tomorrow.”

Boone looked down, back to their shy and unsure self.

“Okay, but... don’t tell them I... showed you here, okay?”, they asked, hesitantly. “They’ll be mad.”

“I won’t. I’ll just say I found the shed by chance.”

The human winked, and Boone smiled again. Frisk then noticed what he just did and rolled his eyes. Maybe he had been spending too much time with a certain skeleton. The rabbit didn’t catch the motion.

“Let’s head back to the house before they miss us.”, stated the human. Boone nodded energetically and opened the shed’s entrance, and the two ran into the rain once again.

They weren’t out for long – maybe two, or three minutes at most – so Frisk was surprised when he and the rabbit entered the house once again and were greeted by Papyrus, who was running down the stairs and gasped when he spotted the human.

“I FOUND THEM!”, yelled the skeleton. “THANK GOODNESS!”

One by one, everyone in the house started to appear in front of them, coming from all directions. MK and Sans appeared upstairs. Bonnie came out from a door which Frisk reckoned led to some sort of basement. Berna came from the kitchen, her face marked by tears, looking relieved and extremely angry at the same time.

The human wanted to hide himself due to embarrassment. Of course something like that would happen. Why had he agreed to follow Boone in the first place?

“Boone... Hunnigan..!”, said Berna, looking at her child and putting her hands on her hips, her voice trembling. “What were you _thinking_ going out like that!? It’s dangerous!”

The white rabbit looked to the ground, shifting their weight on their feet.

“W-we didn’t leave the per-perim... perimeter of the protective sp-”, they tried to say, but their mother cut their sentence.

“The protective charms aren’t perfect!”, she said loudly, making Boone flinch. “God, what if someone had seen you!? Someone who wanted to hurt you!?”

Nobody said anything – there wasn’t anything to be said, in fact.

“UM... HEY, THEY WERE WITH THE HUMAN!”, stated Papyrus as that would make everything alright. Frisk wished they wouldn’t say anything. “I’M POSITIVE THEY WOULD BE ALRIGHT!”

“What could a nine year old rabbit and a teenager possibly do against someone intending to kill!?”, said Berna, glancing an angry look at the taller skeleton, who in turn looked to the ground too. “And you...”

She glanced at Frisk, looking more disappointed than angry, but he wasn’t sure if that was better. He knew what he did was irresponsible; he knew the world wasn’t exactly a safe place, especially for children like Boone.

“You are coming with me to your room.”, she said to her child, her voice sounding restrained this time. “We need to talk.”

Boone simply nodded and followed their mother, still looking to the floor. They went upstairs, while everyone else looked to different parts of the living room, trying to look interested in trivial details of it. Frisk decided to take the chance and climb the stairs to his room, grabbing a towel in the bathroom on the way.

He entered his room, towel drying his hair and his face as he sat down on MK’s bed once again. The human felt remorse – he couldn’t begin to imagine the amount of worry Berna must have felt when she noticed her child was gone. Maybe his mother – or even Toriel – would have done the same if they were alive. He was sad once again, feeling he couldn’t do anything right. 

“sometimes i have the impression you think you are above the consequences.”, Frisk looked to the entrance of the bedroom and found Sans leaning against the door.

“I got it. I know I shouldn’t have gone outside with Boone.”, said Frisk, coldly. “I don’t need _you_ to tell me that.”

Sans had that eternal grin on his face, and merely shrugged at the human’s words.

“can’t say i don’t get why you keep doing this.”, he said, looking at the pouring rain by the window. “you seem to have a hard time believing there are people worried about you now.”

“Yeah, I see...”, replied Frisk, acidly. “You get how ‘messed up I am’, right?”

Over the past two months, the human learned that even the usually calm and collected skeleton couldn’t hide what they thought all the time. Sans understood immediately what Frisk meant, and spent some time in silence, clearly uncomfortable, trying to think of something to say.

“welp... that’s awkward. you shouldn’t overhear other people’s conversations, ya know.”

“You shouldn’t ‘talk about someone who’s listening’.”

“technically, you weren’t supposed to be listening, but...”, began Sans, sighing. “but sorry, anyway. we didn’t mean to offend you.”

Frisk wanted to reply that _oh_ , he was very offended. But he didn’t. He’d be offended if he thought someone was spreading lies about him, but the human sincerely didn’t know if that was his case. He didn’t know what to think of himself.

“No offense taken.”

The skeleton kept by the door, not saying a word, but not making any motion to leave, either. Frisk wanted to say something, to ask questions he knew Sans couldn’t answer, but he needed to get them out some way.

“i like the sound of the rain.”

Frisk looked at Sans, who were with their eyes closed.

“Rain is nice when we are inside, isn’t it?”, said Frisk. “Because when it rained and we were in the open it didn’t feel very good.”

“heh, true. still...”, said Sans, opening his eyes again. He had a distant look, like he was thinking of something far, far away. “i’m still glad about it. it didn’t rain in the underground. welp, except in waterfall, but that doesn’t really count now, does it?”

Some things on the surface were taken for granted by the human, and he frequently forgot that fact. Even with a war taking place, he could see Sans enjoyed what nice little things he could find there.

“What are we doing, Sans?”, he asked, hopeless. “Can we really stop Undyne?”

“i don’t know, but we can’t let things keep going like this.”

“But what are we gonna do _afterwards_?”, the human questioned, a hint of despair on his voice. “After we... kill Undyne? We’ve been working towards this idea because we think that, leaderless, the monsters will stop fighting, right? But what are we gonna do? Do you intend on becoming a king or something?”

The skeleton chuckled, as if he had heard a little, clever joke.

“me? king? now that’s _hilarious_.”, they stated. “no, frisk. it’s you who’ll play an important role on this if we ever manage to take undyne out.”

Frisk looked to the skeleton, puzzled. They had never really spoken of what they were intending to do, but it seemed the time had come. There was no use keeping it hidden. Postponing the preparation would only be dangerous in the future.

“What?”, was the only thing that came to his mind.

“i’m not saying you should be the king. that’s not even possible, heh.”, explained Sans. “what i mean is... we need someone that can guarantee not only the monsters stop fighting, but the humans do that as well. an ambassador of sorts. and who’s better for the job than a human who has befriended some nice monsters, huh?”

Sans was smiling, but Frisk knew they were serious about that idea. To the human, however, it sounded like a joke of poor taste. How could he be an “ambassador” after everything he’d done?

“I’m... I don’t know...”, said Frisk, insecure. “Pretty much all monsterkind hate me because of Undyne’s propaganda.”

“i thought so too, but did you forget what bonnie said yesterday?” said Sans, winking. “a lot of monsters are just hiding. if they are doing that, i’m certain they at least have doubts if the human child that crossed the underground six years ago is actually a vicious murderer, as the empress tells them. listen, i’m not saying monsters will _like_ you as an ambassador, but it’s not like they’ll have any other choice. they’ll have to take it. it’s either that or going back into the underground.”

Frisk thought for a while. Maybe Sans was right, but it was still a shot in the dark. It could work, but at the same time it could turn into another disaster of tremendous proportions. And Frisk was well acquainted with disasters.

“despite everything... you can still be what everyone needs for peace, frisk.”, said Sans calmly. “you are the link necessary for better times. for a better future.”

The human didn’t quite understand all that. It was a lot to process, after all. He didn’t understand throughly why Sans wanted peace to be achieved so badly – but he was glad they did, even if it meant difficult times were ahead. He decided to press on, hoping for the best and prepared for the worst. As always, forward was the only way to go.

The soothing sound of the rain pouring outside filled him with determination.

* * *

 

He was drowsy. He was also... happy?

Frisk looked to the ceiling of the bedroom, his conscience slowly coming back to him. Something had woken him up. He felt warm inside, like he just had a good dream. What was it? He wished he could remember.

Then, the sounds of things breaking downstairs, alongside the familiar buzzing of offensive magic made him sit upright on his bed, his body automatically tensing up. _That_ was why he had woken up. Something wasn’t right.

The sounds kept going on for a while, and he heard voices. He distinguished Papyrus’ piercing one, and maybe Bonnie’s, as well as a couple ones he never heard before. Suddenly, it all stopped, leaving a dead silence lingering in the air.

“What’s going on?”, whispered MK, his voice tone indicating fear.

“I don’t know.”, replied Frisk, whispering too.

The human climbed down the ladder, and felt MK standing up next to him. He could see their outline even though the room was absolutely dark.

“We have to check if the others are alright.”, the human stated, trying not to tremble his voice.

“O-okay...”, the monster replied.

Walking on the tip of their toes, the two reached the bedroom’s door, opening it silently. They walked the corridor alongside the wall, attentive to even the minimal sounds. Frisk led the way, and MK followed him closely.

“Hell yeah! Undyne’s gonna love this!”, said a gurgling, deep voice. Another voice laughed joyfully, saying something the human didn’t understand.

Frisk stopped suddenly, making the yellow monster almost bump into him. The boys looked at each other, confused. Anxiety increased inside the human. They had been found, apparently, but how?

They walked carefully until they reached the mezzanine of the upper floor. Frisk could sense movement below, so he crouched and MK did the same. They kept themselves against the wall just before the mezzanine, hiding. Frisk took a peek. 

He saw, with an increasing horrification in his heart, Bonnie, Berna, Sans and Papyrus kneeled on the floor, hands on their heads, completely defeated. Walking around them were two monsters the human had never seen before. One of them was a blue flame that sort of looked like Grillby, the gentle owner of a bar in Snowdin, though more buffed up. The other one was a giant green pile of goo that had only one eye. They had no legs, and when they moved they made a slimy sound. Both monsters were wearing Royal Guard’s armors and carried spears.

“You know that _not_ fighting is even worse than joining the humans, don’t you, you pigs!”, said the blue flame monster. Their voice sounded as if someone was whispering a bit too loudly.

“You’ll be arrested for crime of treason!”, said the blob monster. “If you do anything funny, we’ll kill you, hear us!?”

Frisk glanced back at MK, who seemed to be just as helpless as he was. The human felt sick. What were they going to do?

“Wait a minute...”, suddenly said the blue flame. Frisk peeked once again and saw them kneeling to see Sans and Papyrus’ faces. “You’re the two skeletons from Snowdin! You were with the human trash!”

For a brief moment, Sans glanced above to the mezzanine, and Frisk was sure the skeleton had seen him.

“sorry, bud. don’t know what you’re talking about.”, said Sans, his voice full of irony. “i _hate_ humans. like, i think they should all disappear and be replaced with flame and blob monsters.”

The blue flame stood up and walked in front of the shorter skeleton, who looked up to the fire elemental. Then they quickly slapped him in the face, making a burning sound. Frisk flinched and Papyrus screamed.

“SANS! NO! LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

The monster simply slapped Papyrus’ face too. It was probably the first time Frisk saw someone actively hurting the taller skeleton while Sans didn’t do anything, and he could see that killed them inside.

“Think twice before saying anything, now!”, said the blue flame, turning to the blob monster afterwards. “I’ll check if there’s anyone upstairs. You stay here.”

Just as they finished the sentence, Berna raised her head, a desperate look in her eyes.

“No... please... my child..!”, she choked on her own words. “Don’t hurt them, please!”

“Oh, don’t worry, sweetie.”, said the blob monster, giving a menacing smile. “We won’t do anything to them, as long as you’re willing to... pay a little price.”

The blob touched Berna’s face, who closed her eyes, trembling.

“ _Stay away_ from my sister.”, said Bonnie, her voice dangerous.

“Oh, we have a fierce one here, I like it!”, said the blob, heading towards the purple bunny. “Maybe you can join us. It’ll be fun!”

That was completely and utterly repulsive – Frisk felt he was about to throw up. He clenched his fists, determined to not let anything bad happen to anyone. He looked to MK, who looked just as disgusted with what they had just heard.

“Whoa, man, get a hold of yourself!”, said the blue flame, laughing. “First I’ll check if there is anyone hiding. Then you can do _whatever_ you want with the prisoners. Undyne won’t need to know that.”

The clock was ticking and there was no time to lose. Frisk signed for MK to go back to the corridor, and they quickly understood. The human led the way once again, proceeding to Boone’s room, his mind racing to find a means to escape that situation.

Frisk could hear the fire elemental climbing the stairs with steady, decisive steps. Fortunately, Boone’s bedroom was by the end of the corridor, so with some luck that would be the last one they’d check. With a surprising precision, the human carefully turned the doorknob and entered the room, praying the white rabbit wouldn’t scream or call attention.

It seemed the child kept the windows open, so the little light that came from outside entered the room. As MK stepped inside, Frisk silently closed the door. The two looked around and quickly found Boone sat by a corner, shaking. When they noticed someone had entered the room, they froze for a moment, but then they noticed who it was and stood up, walking towards them.

“Frisk!”, they mumbled, their voice shaky, throwing their arms around the human. He patted them in the head, attempting to provide some comfort, though he felt a bit awkward.

“Undyne’s lost control of her army.”, said MK with a restrained anger. “What that guy said to Berna and Bonnie... I can’t even..!”

“What?”, said Boone, letting Frisk go. “My mom? What are they gonna do to her?”

“They aren’t gonna do anything.”, said Frisk, decisively. “We have to do something!”

MK looked to the door, as if expecting the fire monster to burst through it at any moment, which wasn’t really a far-fetched possibility.

“We don’t have much time...”, they said.

“They know Boone and I are here.”, stated the human. “But they don’t know about you. You can be our element of surprise.”

“What? So we’re going to _fight_ them?”, asked MK skeptically. “Man, I’m still recovering from yesterday. I can’t do much. And I don’t think the kid can do much, either.”

Boone looked down, a bit let down from the comment.

“It’s true.”, they said. “I don’t know offensive magic...”

Frisk put his hand on his head, thinking. They had to come up with something quick before the situation got worse. He reckoned a surprise attack would be dangerous, but it was the only thing they could do. However, if MK had problems summoning his magic, things could take a turn for the worse easily.

Then, the idea hit the human. If offensive power was what they were lacking, he knew just what they could do to increase it.

“The shed.”, he said, looking at Boone, and then at MK. “There are guns there. Do you think we can defeat them if I assist you with those?”

MK thought for a moment.

“Maybe? We might overwhelm them. How do we get to the shed, though? We can’t just walk through the front door.”

Frisk looked around, and his sight locked onto the open window. He walked towards it.

“Oh, no.”, said MK, realizing what the human was thinking. “No no no. Frisk, _no_!”

“Frisk, _yes_!”, he replied, looking outside and spotting a roof drain pipe running alongside the wall, near the window.

The yellow monster seemed almost to be about to throw a fit, but knew they couldn’t do that.

“I. Don’t. Have. Arms..!”, they said.

“Then hide!”, replied Frisk, turning around to face the two monsters. “You and Boone hide somewhere. I’ll go to the shed and fetch the guns. Try not to be caught, and after the fire monster goes back to the first floor, head back to the mezzanine. We’ll sneak on them, and on my sign we attack. Got it?”

MK gulped. It was clear he was trying to come up with something better, but couldn’t. He kept glancing nervously to the door.

“What a crappy plan.”, he said.

“That’s it, then.”, replied the human, taking it as an acceptance. “Let’s do this!”

“Yeah, whatever. C’mon, Boone, let’s hide.”

The rabbit mumbled something as Frisk sat on the window’s edge, looking below. He had never been afraid of heights, but he felt a little faint as he noticed the second floor was pretty far from the ground. He took a deep breath. He needed to do this.

He raised his arms to the left, grabbing the pipe firmly. He then made a maneuver he didn’t know he could do, and found himself with both his feet pressed against the wall. He gave one step, and then another. That turned out to be surprisingly easy, even for him. It felt weirdly exhilarating to defy gravity in such a manner.

When he stepped safe and sound to the ground, he looked above, not believing what he just did. Oh well. That had been probably his determination taking action again.

The air felt sultry and stale, and the plants on the ground were humid because of the rain that kept falling during day. As he ran to the shed, his footsteps made a squishy sound, but he doubted anyone inside the house would hear them.

When Frisk finally reached the shed, he opened its door, panting. He walked decisively towards the shotgun hanging on the opposite wall. There was no time for hesitation. He picked it up.

It felt heavy. How did that thing work? It was hard to see in the dark, even with the door open, and he cursed himself for not bringing his flashlight along. He turned it around in his hands (being careful not to accidentally point it towards himself), trying to find the loading port. He pressed a button he found to be promising, and to his surprise the shotgun barrel “opened”, letting him check the ammunition. It was empty. 

He tossed it to the ground, frustrated. It was useless. He leaned against the table, trying to find maybe some spare ammo, but there were only the same rusty tools he had found in the morning – and the handgun.

He grabbed it. It wouldn’t pack the same punch the shotgun would not even remotely, but he’d have to deal with it. Frisk fiddled with it for some time before finding a button to unload the magazine, that fell to the ground. He kneeled to recover it and looked at it against the dim light from outside. He counted four bullets, and sighed. Well, those were his resources, and he’d have to make it last.

Reloading the magazine back into the handgun, he grasped it firmly on his left hand, and clenched the other in an attempt to make it stop shaking. On that very moment, he still had doubts if he would ever be able to do what he had to end the war, but he couldn’t let that stop him. There were people – or monsters – who depended on him, and he wasn’t about to give up on them because of some internal conflict.

The time to fight had finally come.

He stepped back outside and walked slowly, but decisively to the front door. He crouched every time he passed by a window from the first floor, as he could not afford to be seen, and when he reached the entrance, he almost gasped. Not only the door, but also some of the wall nearby it had been destroyed, almost as if it had exploded. The human looked back, and noticed he could see the clearing perfectly fine. The protective charms had been disabled, but how did that happen? 

Frisk couldn’t dwell on that – there was a plan to be put on action. He gave careful steps into the house, his ears attentive, trying to pick up any sound clues of what was going on.

“I... don’t... know!”, he heard Berna’s voice, trembling.

“LIAR!”, yelled the fire elemental, and Frisk heard them slapping the pink bunny. “You told me yourself your child was here! Where are they!?”

Frisk was crouched against the wall, and peeked into the living room where everyone was taken hostage. Apparently the fire monster had not found MK and Boone, and looked infuriated. At least that part of the plan had ran smoothly, but now Berna was taking the blame. The blob seemed to be taking joy in observing the situation.

The human glanced to the mezzanine, but didn’t see anyone. Perhaps MK was hiding by the wall nearby it as them and Frisk had done just moments before, which was smart, but also meant he could not be sure if the yellow monster was there.

“They... they were supposed to be there..!”, replied Berna, her voice shaky. “I really don’t know where they are..!”

The fire monster raised their arm, as to slap the bunny once again, but stopped mid-act. Instead, they crossed their arms and sighed. They didn’t look angry, but disappointed. Frisk instinctively tensed up.

“Very well.”, they simply said.

Suddenly, they grabbed Papyrus harshly and made him raise from the ground. Sans stood up immediately, and although he was with his back turned to Frisk, the human knew his eye was glowing that well known eerie glow.

“pap..!”

Before Sans could do anything, the blob monster spilled a strange goo towards the skeleton’s face, and it hit its right side. It made a burning sound, and he fell to the ground, screaming and contorting. Frisk felt his heartbeats increasing drastically, and had cover his mouth with his hand so his erratic breath wouldn’t be heard.

“SANS!”

“You think this is some kind of game, human lover?”, asked the fire elemental, authoritative. “Now, if you value your friend’s life over here, you’ll tell me where the child and the human are.”

They put the point of the spear on Papyrus’ neck. The skeleton had his eyes fixed on his brother, who had stopped screaming and slowly stood up, kneeling where they had been.

Frisk’s hands were cold, and he held the handgun tightly with both of them. It was now or never. If he kept holding back any longer, the consequences could be permanent. He stood up and pointed the weapon at the fire monster, putting his finger on the trigger. They seemed to notice the motion and glanced a look towards the human, giving a step back in surprise.

“What the..!?”

He pulled the trigger, and with a loud “bang” the gun fired, but missed its target by several inches. His whole body was shaking with the shock and the adrenaline.

The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion. Several orange glowing spears appeared around the fire and the blob monsters, and stood pointed at them for a moment before launching. The fire one released Papyrus and dodged, while the blob one took the hit, but it seemed to cause not much damage.

However, that was all they needed. Bonnie quickly stood up and waved her arms in a circle, summoning a purple ball of energy which she fired against the fire monster, who launched a blue fire ball that hit the bunny’s spell. Both attacks split into several smaller attacks that launched in all directions, and Frisk had no throw himself to the ground to avoid being hit.

Sans summoned several sharp-looking bones and started to attack the blob monster with quick, effective and furious attacks. Papyrus, despite normally lacking the intent of hurting anyone, joined his brother. The latter became overwhelmed and couldn’t counterattack.

Bonnie and Berna were both casting magic spells at the fire monster, and despite their talent with it, their opponent seemed to be just as skilled as them and managed to counter every attack.

Frisk caught a glimpse of someone running down the stairs, and couldn’t help but smile as he saw MK summoning several more spears, assisting the group. It was only a matter of time before the Undyne’s soldiers would succumb to the attack and would flee or...

“That’s ENOUGH!”, yelled the fire elemental.

An explosion burst out from the fire monster’s body, knocking everyone back with force. Frisk hit his head on the floor, but fortunately didn’t pass out, though he felt dizzy as he stood up once again, his vision slightly blurry. A burnt smell filled the human’s nose. 

Only when a piece of the roof fell right beside him did he shake his head in an attempt to quickly clear his thoughts. Several parts of the room were on fire, and as the house was wooden-made, things were rapidly crumbling and falling apart.

The fire elemental ran past everyone, though he didn’t bother dodging the flames he had caused, as expected. The blob monster followed behind with a surprising speed, and the fire didn’t seem to affect the goo that composed its body as well. Bonnie shot some spells at them, but they escaped the house through the front door.

“You..!”, she yelled, running after them.

“Sis!”, screamed Berna, raising an arm towards her sister. “Wait! Boone! Where are they!?”

However, the purple rabbit had already left. The flames were getting out of control – they needed to leave. Frisk ran towards the pink rabbit and helped her stand.

“Go help Bonnie!”, he stated, looking her in the eye. “I’ll find Boone!”

She looked at him, unsure if whether she should trust him or not. Frisk looked her in the eye with the most determined look he could manage.

“Go!”, he commanded, and she hesitated one more time before she ran after her sister.

In the middle of the chaos, the human managed to hear a faint sound from a battle going on outside. He ran towards the stairs, but stopped in the middle when he noticed the flames had partially destroyed it, making it impossible to reach the upper floor. MK was sitting down right next to the crumbled part, with an expression of pain.

“MK!”, he said, kneeling next to the yellow monster, who looked at him in turn. “Are you okay? Where’s Boone?”

They looked down for a moment, as if disappointed with themselves.

“I don’t know... They were upstairs, but... dammit!”

Frisk felt a deep dread filling his heart, which turned into pure despair as more of the roof started to crumble around them. He stood up, glancing upstairs.

“Boone!”, he called. “Boone! C’mon!”

But no one came.

He felt the adrenaline rushing through his body. Soon, it would be too late – he had to do something at that exact moment. He couldn’t let Boone die there. Berna had trust him to rescue her child, and he wasn’t thinking on disappointing her.

Looking at the upper floor, he took some steps back and positioned himself in a running stance. A long jump would be necessary to reach the upper floor, and if he fell he’d be swallowed by the flames, but he _had_ to do it. MK looked at him confused, and when they noticed what he was about to do their expression turned into a horrified one.

“Dude, what..!?”

The human was already running. The thought of saving the white rabbit filled him with...

“nope. you’ll just end up killing yourself.”

Sans appeared out of nowhere, grabbing Frisk by his shirt and stoping him from jumping.

“What? No!”, said the human, facing the skeleton, annoyed. “Boone..! They’re... _whoa_!”

The right side of their face was brown in color, burned by the acid the blob monster had spilled at them. It looked like it hurt a lot, but they didn’t seem to pay much attention to it.

“look, frisk. i get you’re very determined and all, but you’d never reach the top of the stairs.”, replied Sans, his expression serious. “listen, i’ll go get the kid. pap is outside helping berna and bonnie. you and mk just get out of here. now. there’s no telling when this house is gonna crumble.”

“How do you intend..?”, Frisk attempted to inquire, but with a whooshing sound Sans disappeared before he could finish his question. “Oh. Right.”

He looked at MK, who simply looked back at him with a sense of urgency in their eyes. The human had no choice but believe Sans and hope Boone would be alright. For now, all they could do was get out of the burning house before it fell over them.

“Can you stand?”, asked Frisk.

“I... I think I broke my ankle.”, said MK, looking at his right leg, his voice shaking a bit. “I don’t know, maybe it’s just fractured or twisted.”

“Here, I’ll help you.”, said the human, helping the monster stand on their feet. “Just lean against me and we’ll get the hell out of here!”

Frisk wrapped his arm around the yellow monster’s torso and they both began unsteadily walking down the rest of the stairs. That would have definitely been easier if MK had arms, but they had to keep going no matter what.

As soon as the two reached the bottom of the stairs, more pieces of the roof fell. Their eyes burned, and the smoke from the fire filled their lungs, making it hard to breathe. The house’s entrance wasn’t far – they just had to keep going a little longer.

The human tried to go as fast as he could, but MK had to drag their foot, slowing them down considerably. The walls fell behind them, consumed by the fire. Frisk calculated they had maybe seconds to get out of there. He couldn’t give up – he could even see the entrance, there was only a small corridor left to cross.

He could almost feel the fresh air beyond the entrance when part of the wall crumbled in front of it, partially blocking the passage. The debris was half Frisk’s height. He had to fight not to let panic take over his mind.

“Damn! We’re... so close!”, he said.

MK coughed. They struggled to release themselves from Frisk’s grasp and looked at him, sorrowful.

“You should... should have left me.”, they said. “I just slowed you down.”

Their voice was slower and lower pitched than normal. Frisk himself was starting to feel dizzy and faint. They would pass out there – if the house didn’t fall apart first.

No. They had come too far to just die there. They couldn’t give up just yet – not until the very last moment.

“You... idiot.”, said Frisk, grabbing MK with both his arms, looking at them straight in the eye. “I said... I’d never leave you behind. Let’s... go!”

With a boost of strength he didn’t know where it came from, Frisk jumped past the debris that blocked the entrance, taking the yellow monster with him. In the future, the human would have difficulty explaining how he pulled that stunt just when he was about to faint. Somehow, he did it. The fresh air from outside felt like it disintoxicated his lungs. The dizziness stopped. As he lied in the grass, the thought crossed his head. They were fine.

They were alive.

As Frisk stood up, his legs a bit shaky, the house crumbled right in front of his eyes, consumed by the flames. It was so bright it hurt to look, and from where they were it felt just as hot as when they were inside it. Their luck was that the cabin was in the middle of a clearing – otherwise a big forest fire would surely have followed.

“Frisk..!”, yelled MK.

He looked behind just in time to dodge a pile of slime that had been thrown at him. Suddenly, he could hear the sounds of offensive magic being thrown around again. Inside the cabin, he was so focused on escaping that any other unrelated sounds passed completely unnoticed by his mind.

Just a moment after, Papyrus, Bonnie and Berna appeared in front of him and MK, facing the fire elemental and the blob monster. They were all panting from the battle they had been having.

“HUMAN!”, said Papyrus, not taking his eyes out of their enemies. “WHERE’S SANS?”

“Where’s Boone?”, asked Berna.

Frisk felt his mouth dry, and it wasn’t because of the heat produced by the fire that burned behind them. His mind was racing, and he felt slightly sick. What could he tell them?

“Where’s. Boone.”, repeated Berna, glancing a desperate look at the human, who just looked down. “Oh my g-”

“Mom!”, yelled a voice from their right.

Frisk almost cried with relief. The white rabbit was running towards them, an skeleton wearing a blue hoodie just behind. Boone reached their mother, hugging her from behind. One could tell she felt immensely relieved, but instead of hugging her child back, she gazed at the Undyne’s soldiers once more.

MK had stood up and limped, getting next to Frisk. Sans stood by the human’s other side, grinning like usual. He was wearing his backpack – did he fetch it as he was rescuing Berna’s child from the house?

“How beautiful!”, said the fire elemental, giving a smile full of malice. “Everyone is here! We can have a family party!”

The human put his left hand on his pocket, feeling the handgun he had left there. It wasn’t over – those intruders wouldn’t leave them alone so easily. He gulped. He didn’t want to fight for a number of reasons, but knowing his friends were in danger left him with no other choice.

“Leave _now_.”, said Bonnie dangerously, her hands shining with a purple-glowing magic.

“Oh, but why should we?”, they replied. “We were called here in the first place!”

Frisk blinked a few times. Did he hear that right?

A drop of cold sweat ran by his forehead. If they were being honest, that meant that someone in the cabin had...

“If you insist.”, replied Bonnie coldly before glancing a look to Sans, who was behind her. “Sans, you and your group need to leave immediately.”

“ _What_!?”, said Frisk before the skeleton could reply anything. “No way!”

Everyone was fully focused on their opponents, except Frisk and Bonnie. The purple rabbit sighed. It was clear she was unsure of what to say. Frisk had mixed feelings about her, but leaving her to fight alone with Berna was something that never, ever crossed his head.

“Frisk...”, she said, and the other held his breath. It was the first time she called him by name. “When I look at you, I don’t know if you’re more human... or more monster. But right now it doesn’t matter. The guys you’ve been traveling with believe you can help to put a stop to all of this, and I have no choice but believe in them. That’s why you must leave!” 

The human opened his mouth, trying to reply something, but the words never made it outside, so he closed it again. Bonnie, in turn, simply shifted her attention to the guards.

“don’t worry, bonnie.” said Sans, calmly. “i know i’m right.”

“You _better_ be.”, she grunted.

“alright guys, just hold me now.”, said Sans, grabbing Papyrus’ hand and offering the other one to Frisk. “hold mk, buddy.”

Frisk hesitated a little before grabbing the shorter skeleton’s hand and wrapping his other arm around MK.

“What!?”, said the fire elemental. “No! They are leaving! Quick!”

They started attacking once again, but Bonnie and Berna counterattacked perfectly, not allowing their enemies’ attacks reach them. The multicolored lights from the magic made the scene look like some sort of lethal fireworks show.

“GO!”, screamed Bonnie.

“hold on tight!”, warned Sans.

Frisk knew what was about to happen. He had teleported with Sans before – or as the skeleton liked to say, he had already taken one of their “shortcuts”. He squeezed their hand and held MK even tighter with his other arm.

With another whooshing sound, the human felt his head spin and, for a moment, it seemed as if the ground had disappeared beneath his feet, his vision shifting and turning as they got far away from the ferocious battle that they left behind.


	4. Anomaly

Frisk had teleported once with Sans before. The skeleton took him from the Waterfall entrance to Grillby’s in Snowdin. The distance between the two locations was so short that the “shortcut” felt totally unnecessary, and that was why he wasn’t fond of it.

At first, it’s feels like they are free falling, spinning at a high velocity. Then, the limbs become numb, proceeded by a feeling like being squeezed into a small bottle and then taken out again. Finally, the destination is reached. The ones used to teleportation normally do so graciously. The ones not so used to it normally fall with their face flat to the ground.

Naturally, the human fit in the last category, so he just hit the ground with a loud thud, and heard the same happening to everyone else (with the exception of Sans, obviously). As he started to be able to feel his limbs once again, his torso aching from the fall, he got up, wiping the dirt out from his clothes.

It was dark, but they were clearly in some kind of forest. Where did Sans take them?

At the same time, he worried about Bonnie, Berna and Boone. Frisk knew the purple rabbit told them to leave, but he still thought leaving them behind was a bad idea. The two sisters were really talented with magic, but perhaps that wouldn’t be enough. And Boone... they must have felt so scared there. The human thought they could have at least taken the white rabbit with them.

Suddenly, he began to hear someone breathing rapidly, growling with pain. He looked around and saw MK laying down on the ground, Sans and Papyrus kneeled next to him. The taller skeleton held a flashlight while the shorter one searched frantically for something in their backpack. A sense of foreboding installed within the human’s heart as he walked towards the group. 

“F... Frisk...”, said MK, noticing him approaching. Their voice sounded thin and it trembled, like they were feeling pain, or were scared. Or maybe both.

“Hey.”, greeted the human, worried. “What happened?”

Papyrus looked to Frisk, and Sans merely glanced a look before continuing to search for things in his backpack.

“apparently...”, began the shorter skeleton, his voice tense. “you shouldn’t take shortcuts if you have fractured or broken bones.”

He took some bandages out of his backpack as Frisk looked to Papyrus, confused. The taller skeleton sighed as they pointed the flashlight at MK’s ankle. Frisk felt his stomach twist as he saw it.

There was a bone protruding from their ankle, a greenish liquid pouring out from the wound (maybe it was their ‘blood’? Frisk couldn’t tell for sure). The bone seemed to have fully snapped, and probably pierced the yellow monster’s skin during the teleportation.

“I... I can’t feel...”, babbled MK. “Can’t feel my leg... Frisk, what’s going on?”

Frisk wanted to say everything would be alright, but his voice seemed to be gone. He kneeled by their side, next to Sans, who pulled the rum bottle from their backpack.

He had forgotten about that. Sans took it from a department store they looted in the beginning of the war, intending to use it as an antiseptic. Papyrus seemed to be shocked when he saw his brother carried that around.

“What are you gonna do?”, asked Frisk, gulping.

“put his bone back in its place.”, said Sans, taking a look at MK’s wound up close. “we don’t have much time. if we’re not quick enough, we’ll have to amputate it.”

Frisk noticed his hands were cold, and closed them in an attempt to get them warmer. They were shaking too. Actually, his whole body was shaking.

“A-am...putate?”, said MK, panic clear on his voice. “P-please... no... do something!”

“i’ll try.”, said Sans, looking sorrowfully to the yellow monster. “but i’m not gonna lie – this is gonna hurt as _hell_.”

The prospective of having their ankle amputated seemed to be scary enough because MK didn’t hesitate to nod energetically. He seemed to be about to cry, and that broke Frisk’s heart.

“pap, frisk.”, called the skeleton. “hold him tight. _don’t_ let him move around, understood?”

Papyrus nodded and held MK’s legs against the ground, while Frisk pressed their chest with his hands. It probably didn’t inspire confidence in them as the human’s arms were shaking.

He looked away when he heard Sans opening the bottle. The skeleton gave a little sigh before pouring the rum on the wound. Almost immediately MK let out a piercing scream of pain, and Frisk felt their body instinctively shaking, trying to break free from his and Papyrus’ hold. It lasted some seconds, and after that they just kept shaking violently, sobbing. 

“okay, okay...”, said Sans, trying his best to keep calm and not let the situation get the best of him. “just... hold on there, mk. it’ll be over soon.”

Frisk looked at Sans as they put the flashlight in their mouth and positioned their hands around MK’s ankle. He understood what was about to happen, and closed his eyes.

As Sans began to rearrange the bone to put it back on its place, MK started to scream once again. This time, however, it didn’t last mere seconds, but a lot more. They shook and twisted with more force, and Frisk almost let them go a couple of times, but held on tight. He had to stay strong. He had to stay determined.

It probably didn’t even last a minute, but that dreadful moment felt like it took an eternity. Eventually, Sans managed to put the bone back, immediately placing MK’s ankle under a flat wooden plank and wrapping it tightly with the bandages. The yellow monster stopped shaking, but occasionally would let a hiccup or vocalize something, his voice weak from screaming.

“done.”

Papyrus let MK’s legs go, and Frisk did the same. The reptilian monster, however, made no motion to sit, and just kept on the ground, taking deep breaths.

“YOU... YOU DID GREAT, MK.”, complimented Papyrus, giving them a weak smile, but MK didn’t even glance at the skeleton.

Sans stood up, stretching out his bones as he did so. He walked towards a nearby tree and sat again, leaning against it. Papyrus kept at MK’s side, and Frisk sat down where he was, wrapping his legs with his arms. He felt incredibly tired – the amount of things they had gone through in the past hour was unbelievable.

“Where are we?”, inquired the human, breaking the silence.

“i’m not a hundred percent certain.”, said Sans. “but we’ve been here before... maybe last month.”

Frisk couldn’t help but feel slightly demotivated by hearing that information.

“So we’ve come _back_?”, he asked, not even attempting to hide the disappointment on his voice.

“hey, i can only take shortcuts to places i’ve already been.”, replied Sans, defending himself. “and this one was the first that came to mind. besides, we were probably a bit too close to undyne, as you can tell by what happened tonight.”

It was probably true, but now they were a bit too far from her. They’d never reach the empress, specially with a wounded MK. That meant the war was still far from being over. However, he didn’t say anything to the shorter skeleton. They were likely feeling as frustrated as he was, even if they took them there it was in an attempt to protect everyone. The human couldn’t bring himself to complain about that. He decided to change the subject instead.

“The protective charms.”, he said. “They weren’t working. And that fire guy said something about ‘being called’. Who... who did it?”

Frisk felt anxious when making the question. He trusted the monsters he’d been traveling with wholeheartedly, and the mere thought of one of them betraying him hurt. The mood got uncomfortable. 

“BERNADETTE.”, replied Papyrus. “SHE WAS THE ONE WHO DEACTIVATED THE TRAPS AND THE PROTECTIVE SPELLS AROUND THE HOUSE. WE WERE IN THE LIVING ROOM WHEN BONNIE INQUIRED HER ABOUT IT. AND THEN, SUDDENLY, THEY BURST THROUGH THE ENTRANCE. WE COULDN’T DO A THING.”

Papyrus looked down, extremely sad. 

“Why would she do such a thing?”, asked Frisk, not believing. Berna seemed to be such a kind monster, why would she backstab them?

“she had contacts with the royal guard.”, replied Sans, dryly. “she probably felt you were a threat to her child because of what happened in the morning. i bet she didn’t expect all that to backfire at her, though.”

Of course that was it. In the end, it was always Frisk’s fault. Always because of his stupid mistakes. And Sans still hoped he could be an “ambassador”. What a cruel joke.

Still, he couldn’t feel angry at Berna. He simply worried over her, her sister and her child. He wondered if they were still fighting. Perhaps they had already dealt with the situation. Or maybe they had been captured. Or killed. He shivered.

“SANS?”, asked Papyrus, his voice a bit unsure. “UM... WHY HAVE YOU BEEN CARRYING ALCOHOL WITH YOU?”

Frisk held his breath. The shorter skeleton had asked him not to tell Papyrus about the rum they had picked up at the department store, but now that card too was laid bare on the table.

“makeshift antiseptic, pap.”, said Sans, and Frisk was glad to hear a clear note of honesty on his voice. “and just that. honest. you saw the bottle was full, right?”

Papyrus seemed to be in conflict whether he should believe Sans or not, but in the end, he could probably feel his brother wasn’t lying. At least not that time.

“RIGHT.”, he replied. “I BELIEVE IN YOU!”

“thanks, bro.”, replied Sans, sounding a little happier.

At that moment, MK made a motion and slowly stood up from the ground. He pressed their wounded leg against the ground, testing the improvised curative. His face flinched a little, but he didn’t make any complaints, so that was probably something.

“How are you feeling?”, asked Frisk, concerned.

“Like crap.”, said MK. “But thanks a lot, guys. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

It was possible to hear the gratitude on their tired voice, and it made Frisk feel a little better. They slowly walked to a nearby tree, limping, before sitting down and leaning against it, like Sans had done before.

After a while, Sans stood up and started walking towards the yellow monster. He sat next to them, who in turn looked at him, probably confused. Frisk and Papyrus just watched, not sure of what was going on. For a while, nobody said anything, and the human could almost tell the shorter skeleton was feeling embarrassed.

“so... uh...”, said Sans, scratching his head. “what you did tonight... i mean... you were really brave there.”

Frisk would be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised by that. Sans giving a genuine compliment to MK wasn’t something to expect. The shorter skeleton would normally either give them a neutral treatment, or be ironic at them. Nevertheless, the human smiled. 

“i know we didn’t start... this... really well. at all.”, continued Sans. “and i’ve been a jerk to you a couple times. i didn’t trust you. but tonight, how you and frisk saved us... i’m sure now you’re trustworthy.”

“SANS...”, said Papyrus, clearly happy with the moment, but Frisk just poked them in the arm. It was better if they didn’t say anything there.

“um... so...”, said Sans a while after his brother’s interruption. “i’m willing to put it all behind us, and start all over again.” 

Frisk’s smile grew wider, even though nobody could see it in the dark. MK kept in silence, probably having a hard time believing what he was hearing.

“Sounds nice, numbskull.”

The human wanted to laugh with joy, but that would probably just embarrass everybody, so he settled with just laying in the ground, relaxing. Papyrus shifted his look from Sans and MK to him, confused.

“HUMAN?”, they called. “ARE YOU GOING TO SLEEP HERE?”

“leave them be, pap.”, said Sans, standing up once again. “we’re all ‘bone tired’, heheh. let’s camp here. sunrise must not be far, anyway.”

Frisk closed his eyes, still smiling. His heart still felt heavy, but he wasn’t feeling down. He felt more determined to find Undyne and end that war – even if it would all come down to kill or be killed.

For the first time, the four felt united not as simple friends, but as true brothers.

* * *

 

“Sans worked with the royal scientist!?”

Frisk almost dropped all the sticks and wood planks he had been carrying. The sun was setting, and as MK still couldn’t walk too much, they would settle down in the forest much earlier than they used to. As the yellow monster and Sans guarded the place, the human and Papyrus ventured themselves deeper into the woods to find material to make a small fire.

As they walked, they’d do all sorts of small talk. Frisk’s favorite bands, Papyrus favorite dishes (all of them involving spaghetti, of course), cool trivia about the Underground the human never knew about, things like that. Somehow, that day the conversation topic shifted into Sans, and Frisk was utterly shocked about what he had heard – if he had heard it right.

“YES!”, replied Papyrus, his eyes beaming with pride. “HE MAY NOT LOOK LIKE IT, BUT HE’S REALLY SMART!”

Sans was indeed smart – he always pulled a (bad) joke in the moment it presented itself. However, Frisk had difficulty believing that very same skeleton knew physics and science stuff too well. Then again, he showed the human the constellations back when the war had just started, so there was that.

“It wasn’t Alphys, though, right?”, asked the human. Frisk had the feeling the skeleton and the now deceased royal scientist were at least acquainted, but couldn’t picture Sans working for her.

“NO, NO! HE AND ALPHYS WERE PUPILS OF THE ROYAL SCIENTIST AT THE TIME!”, replied Papyrus, picking up a plank from the ground. “DO YOU THINK THIS ONE IS GOOD?”

The taller skeleton waved the plank in front of him. It looked slightly wet, but he reckoned it would burn okay in the fire.

“Seems cool.”, said Frisk. “Anyway, who was the royal scientist before Alphys?”

Papyrus frowned, as if he was trying to remember something he had long forgotten.

“I DON’T... KNOW?”, he said, confused. “IT STARTED WITH “W”. WILL? WALE..? THAT’S STRANGE... THEY BUILT THE CORE AND A BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF, BUT I CAN’T REMEMBER THEM!”

It was weird, indeed. If they built the core – the source of energy for the Underground, they should have been really famous. Papyrus would surely know at least their first name. Why didn’t he?

“How did Sans end up working in the lab?”, asked Frisk. After all, that was what he was curious about, forgotten royal scientists aside.

Papyrus looked down, deep in thought, reminiscing about his past and Sans’.

“HIS FIRST JOB WAS AS A JANITOR IN THE LAB. I THINK THAT WITH HIS... SENSE OF HUMOR... HE MADE FRIENDS WITH EVERYBODY THAT WORKED THERE, INCLUDING ALPHYS AND THE ROYAL SCIENTIST. BUT THAT ASIDE, HE HAD ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN SCIENCE. HE NEVER WENT TO SCHOOL, BUT HE’D STUDY WITH ME, AND HE LOVED THOSE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY STUFF!”

So Sans’ job that took he and Papyrus from the streets was none other than as a janitor in the royal lab. Frisk never expected their first job to be of a stand-up comedian, but working at a science lab didn’t seem to be fit for the shorter skeleton.

“I THINK THE ROYAL SCIENTIST NOTICED SANS KNEW A LOT ABOUT SCIENCE-Y THINGS, SO THEY TOOK HIM AS THEIR PUPIL WHEN HE TURNED 19.” they continued. “I REMEMBER THEY CAME HOME REALLY HAPPY THAT DAY!”

Frisk picked up some more sticks nearby a tree, catching glimpse of a snail going up its trunk. It made him remember _someone_ who used to like snails, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

“And what did his work consist of?”

Papyrus made a stereotypical thinking face, which made them look even more like a cartoon character. 

“UGH, I DON’T KNOW!”, they said after a while. “AT FIRST IT WAS ALL ABOUT FINDING A WAY OF BREAKING THE BARRIER WITHOUT HUMAN SOULS. THEN IT SHIFTED TO BE ABOUT... TIME... TRAVEL..?”

The skeleton sounded really unsure. Frisk snorted.

“What?”, he said, skeptically. “Time travel? Is that... even...”

Possible? The human was ready to mock that very idea. Time travel was absurd, but... he suddenly felt that somehow it... made sense? It felt like he was forgetting an important information.

“I KNOW! I’M NOT SURE I’M RIGHT, TO BE HONEST! YOU BETTER ASK SANS IF YOU’RE CURIOUS! AS GREAT AS I AM, SCIENCE IS NOT FOR ME!”

That snapped Frisk out of his thoughts. Maybe the war was starting to make his brain melt. Of course time travel was impossible – the general idea of time travel, at least. Besides, he still wanted to know a few more things about that part of Sans’ life.

“I THINK THIS IS ENOUGH FOR A GOOD FIRE!”, said Papyrus, energetically. “LET’S GO BACK TO THE CAMP!”

The human nodded in agreement, and they both turned around, starting to make their way back to the rest of the group. They walked in silence for a while, as Frisk had the feeling he was about to bring up a touchy subject, but he decided to ask it anyway. He reckoned Papyrus was more prone to answer it sincerely than Sans.

“So uh... how did you guys end up in Snowdin?”, he asked a bit hesitantly. “I mean, you were both working as sentries when I met you six years ago, and Sans never mentioned anything about working as a scientist." 

Papyrus gave a little sigh, but kept their kind smile nonetheless. Frisk knew then he was right – the reason Sans stopped working at the lab was probably not a happy one. 

“THAT WAS MY IDEA.”, they replied. “FIVE YEARS AFTER SANS STARTED TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH THE ROYAL SCIENTIST, AN ACCIDENT HAPPENED AND... AND I THINK THEY PASSED AWAY.”

“You... think?”, asked Frisk. It was weird Papyrus wouldn’t be sure about such a vital information.

“YEAH, I... THAT MAKES SENSE, I GUESS!”, they replied, frowning. “SANS WAS REALLY, REALLY UPSET ABOUT THAT, AND HE STARTED TO WORK A LOT MORE. THERE WERE DAYS I WOULDN’T EVEN SEE HIM GET HOME, AND WHEN I DID, HE’D USUALLY BE... REEKING OF ALCOHOL, AND I WOULD HAVE TO HELP HIM GET TO BED.”

So that was why Sans wanted to keep the rum bottle a secret – Papyrus probably didn’t have fond memories of alcohol, and Sans didn’t want his brother to think he had started drinking again. Frisk imagined how the taller skeleton felt when they’d see their brother drunkenly getting home.

“THEN... WHEN ALPHYS FILLED IN THE POSITION OF ROYAL SCIENTIST, HE JUST QUIT THE JOB.”, continued Papyrus. “I THINK THEY FOUGHT OR SOMETHING, BECAUSE SANS NEVER SPOKE TO HER AGAIN. THAT WAS WHEN I GOT US JOBS AS SENTRIES AND MOVED TO SNOWDIN TOWN. YOU KNOW, TO START OUR LIVES OVER! IN TIMES LIKE THOSE, WE MUST REMAIN POSITIVE!”

The skeleton smiled, and Frisk smiled back. That was _so_ Papyrus. The human was glad to be with them – the past months would have been unbearable otherwise.

But something Papyrus said struck the human as odd. Maybe Sans and Alphys did fight, but have they really never spoken to each other again? He remembered when he asked the shorter skeleton how did the monsters break the barrier, and they seemed to know an awful lot about Alphys’ experiments. Perhaps they had gotten back in touch with each other after Frisk left the Underground?

He wondered if Sans would be open about all that if he asked him. But Frisk knew for a fact the skeleton was trying to talk about their past, little by little, so the best he could do was go for it and follow Papyrus’ example, maintaining a positive attitude.

* * *

 

They had no choice but to carry on and walk through all places they had already been to reach Undyne – although MK’s condition slowed them down considerably. Still, giving up or leaving the yellow monster behind were not options in none of their heads.

Almost three weeks after the cabin incident, the group reached a town they had already passed by in the past – and now it felt even more like an empty shell of what it used to be. The place felt dead, and they probably were the only live souls wandering those streets.

“We’re only here _now_?”, asked MK, clearly disappointed.

Frisk could not blame them for being upset. Basically a month of traveling had been wasted, and they were trying to redo it. To make it worse, Sans’ “shortcuts” were out of question – at least until the reptilian monster’s leg fully healed. The human himself was feeling a bit down, but he gave his best, most determined smile anyway.

“Hey, we can’t stop now, can we?”, he said. “How’s your leg?”

MK glanced at their leg, making small movements with it.

“Sometimes it hurts.”, they said. “But it’s healing fine, I guess.”

Sans and Papyrus had walked a bit further, looking attentively at the windows of the houses and shops. The taller skeleton signed for them to keep close.

“this place is empty.”, said Sans, intrigued. “remember the last time we were here? the human patrols?”

“YEAH! WE ALMOST MANAGED TO SNEAK PAST THEM!”, said Papyrus more cheerfully than it would be appropriate for such a memory.

“That wasn’t fun.”, stated MK, gloomily.

“welp, good for us that we don’t have to go through all that again.”, said Sans, shrugging. “let’s just be careful.”

With that, they started to wander around the city. They always checked before turning a corner, their eyes and ears attentive to the slightest of motions. However, that time nobody ever came.

As twilight colored the sky with a mix of orange and purple, they decided to search for a house to settle in for the night. Frisk was actually excited about that – every opportunity they had to sleep in a place other than the woods had to be taken gratefully.

They decided for a small house located in what the human presumed to be the downtown. As soon as they entered, he noticed a thin layer of dust covered almost everything, indicating it had been sometime since someone had lived there. Nevertheless, they had to check if there wasn’t anyone hiding.

It was a fairly simple home, so the four of them wouldn’t take much time checking it. Frisk walked past the kitchen and the living room, and into the bedrooms. One of them had a king sized bed, so he presumed they were in a place that once was home to a couple, perhaps with a small child, considering the other bedroom. He checked under the bed and the closet, finding nothing strange, as expected. However, as he turned around, his sight locked onto a big map of the region that was hanging in the wall, scribbles all over it.

The human walked closer to it, curious. The markings seemed fairly recent. One of the cities had a big circle drawn around it, and a small note under it. He squinted his eyes to read it, and at first it didn’t make any sense, but as realization sunk in, he felt his heart starting to pound.

 

_Queen there? Gotta take her out._

_Heading there with the team._

_\- Leo J._

“Sans!”, he called, his voice shaking a little. “Papyrus! MK! There’s something weird here...”

His message was a bit vague, which made the rest of the group come rushing to where he was, thinking that maybe the human had actually found someone there. Frisk merely pointed to the map, and Sans was the first one to approach it, their pupils fixed on the circled city and the message. Their expression remained neutral, much to Frisk’s nervousness.

“Please tell me this is not what I think it is.”, pleaded Frisk, his voice with an almost childish tone.

Sans looked at the human, their everlasting smile still not giving in.

“yep, pretty much.”

“UM... WHAT IS... WHAT?”, asked Papyrus, his own question confusing him.

“we’re not the only ones after undyne.”, replied Sans, closing his eye sockets. “whoever was here has already set foot at finding her, and somehow had a lead at where she is.”

MK stepped into the room, looking at the map as well. Suddenly, all the color drained from his face.

“But... but that’s...”, he babbled, looking at Frisk desolated. “That’s on the other side of the region. We’ll never reach them before they do.”

The yellow monster sat on the bed, looking to the floor.

“I _knew_ I was just slowing you down.”, he said with a pessimistic tone on his voice. “You should just leave me here and teleport back to the clearing. It’s not too close from that city, but at least then you’ll have a chance.”

“WHAT!? NO WAY, MK!”, said Papyrus, putting his hands on his hips, almost looking angry with the reptilian monster’s suggestion. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL NEVER ALLOW YOU TO BE LEFT BEHIND!”

“i’m with pap, buddy.”, said Sans, winking at him. “you won’t see yourself free from my wonderful jokes any time soon, y’know.”

MK just looked at the skeleton brothers with a look of disbelief.

“If those humans reach Undyne before we do...”, they began.

“there is a possibility they’ll kill her, in which case we monsters will be sent back into the underground, and it’ll suck.”, completed Sans. “but we’re not leaving you behind, mk. we’ll find a way to get there quickly. you’ll see.”

Frisk wondered if Undyne could take on a group of well armed humans. She had grown more powerful for sure, but the possibility she’d fall on the wrong hands and make everything be in vain was really stressing. However, MK didn’t need to know about that. Besides, the human would never consider the possibility of leaving them behind, so he smiled, trying to show confidence.

“Hey, let’s forget about all that for now.”, he said, changing the subject. “Let’s search for anything that might be useful here. Then we can eat.”

They didn’t find much, though – some old cookies and molded bread, and that was it. Searching some markets the next day would be wise – but as three months had already passed since the war started, it was becoming more and more difficult to find fresh supplies. They had to try it, anyway.

They divided their rations for the day and ate, making small talk as they did so. Usually, Papyrus would make a remark about the place they were in, and Sans would manage to make a pun out of it, making Frisk and MK roll their eyes and the taller skeleton almost go insane, and that time it was no different. It never got old.

As night went on, they decided it was time to turn in. That time, Sans would start the watch, and it would surely be monotonous since the town was empty, but they couldn’t take any foolish risks. As Papyrus and MK went to the rooms, the human threw himself in the sofa, while Sans sat on a chair nearby.

Frisk was tired, but there was something about being the only human alive on a desolated town that made him extremely uncomfortable. His mind wandered to Bonnie’s words he heard weeks before – “ _he was probably the only human traveling with monsters, and was totally okay with it”_.

Thinking about Bonnie made him feel bad. He could only hope they were alright, but inside him there was a little voice that kept saying they hadn’t met a happy fate. It was another guilt on his pile, alongside Toriel’s death and... well, that whole war.

“can’t sleep, huh, buddo?”, said Sans.

Sans sat backwards on the chair, leaning their torso against the chair’s spine, legs thrown at its sides, glancing at the human. Frisk just looked back, unaware of how much time had passed.

“No...”, he answered, as if it already wasn’t obvious enough. “I’m thinking about... well, I’m thinking about _them_.”

The skeleton made circular movements with his head, his bones rattling as he did so.

“no use crying over spilled milk.”, he stated. “it’s not like you need another thing to feel guilty about, anyway.”

“I can’t help it!”, said Frisk, almost annoyed. It was easy to just tell someone not to feel guilty over something. “I... ugh... why is this so hard?”

Frisk scratched his eyes. Damn, he _was_ tired. He would probably look like a zombie the next morning.

Sans kept in silence, not sure what to reply. They kept like that for a while. Frisk, however, didn’t want to be quiet. For some reason, when it was too silent, he felt some bad, weird feelings growing in his chest, almost as if he would explode. He hated it – it was like being a time bomb. He had to get it out somehow, but how to start it?

“Sans?”, he called, his voice low. “Do you... think I’m a bad person?”

The shorter skeleton looked puzzled, turning their head a little to the side.

“what makes you think that?”, they asked.

“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling, I guess. I have enough reasons to feel like that, so...”

Sans sighed, looking to the ground as he did so.

“you’re asking the wrong person, bud.”, he replied, giving a half-hearted smile to the human. “i’m pretty much a bad person myself.”

“I think you’re awesome.”, said Frisk almost instantaneously. Sans chuckled, a bit surprised with the answer.

“welp, _that_ i am, right? but despite that...”, said the skeleton, closing his eyes. “everything i do is for selfish reasons. even when i’m helping pap... it’s not like i’m saving him. i’m saving myself.”

Frisk had motives to disagree with that, but trying to make Sans see that would be complicated, and he lacked the energy to do so. MK was right – they _did_ have a thick skull.

“Have you told Papyrus?” he inquired. “About you not being biological brothers and... you know, the rest.”

Sans opened his eyes again, but didn’t make eye contact with the human.

“no, i haven’t had the... opportunity to do so.”

Frisk knew that wasn’t true, and by the way the skeleton hesitated, they didn’t believe in that, either. However, the human could tell that Sans was very afraid of being rejected, or that Papyrus wouldn’t look at them in the same light anymore. It was a very rational feeling – but Frisk was sure the taller skeleton would understand everything. But then again, he wasn’t the one who had to tell it. He decided to change the subject.

“Papyrus told me you used to be a scientist.”

Sans grinned, amused by the fact the human had discovered that.

“heh, it was no big deal. i never went to school, after all.”, they said, shrugging.

“You worked with the royal scientist!”, said Frisk. “Don’t try to say it was no big deal.”

The skeleton smile widened, and their eye sockets made a movement that was similar to an eye-brow raising.

“wow, so you _really_ talked about me, huh?”

Frisk’s face went red from embarrassment. He felt like a hypocrite. 

“Sorry...”

“hey, no biggie.”, they dismissed. “my story and pap’s are pretty much intertwined, so when you talk about one, you talk about the other.”

That was something everybody could agree with. The two skeletons were together pretty much everywhere, or at least they knew what each other was up to. Biological or not, they were true brothers.

Sans rested his chin on his arms, that were crossed over the chair spine. He had a nostalgic look on his face.

“yep, i worked with the royal scientist.”, said Sans. “cool guy. very smart. he enjoyed my science puns, but only periodically.”

The skeleton stopped for a moment, expectantly, and only after a few seconds Frisk noticed why. The human face palmed.

“God, Sans. _Why_?”, it was the only thing he managed to say.

Sans gave an earnest laugh.

“c’mon, throw me a bone here, that was a pretty good one.”, stated the skeleton, winking. “anyway, where was i? Oh yeah, the royal scientist. doctor wingding gaster. did a lot of great things and all.”

“Yeah, _that’s_ something I can’t understand...”, said Frisk, scratching his eyes. His head was starting to hurt. Great. “I never heard of him when I passed through the Underground... and he seemingly was the one who built the entire Core. I don’t know much about it, but wasn’t that the source of all energy down there? I figured the guy behind it all would be pretty famous.”

He was glad to be talking about that – the mysterious royal scientist’s oblivion had been puzzling him for a while. If there was anyone who could give him some answers, it was Sans. They, in turn, changed to a somewhat darker expression, and the human knew something bad had happened.

“there was an accident.”, replied the skeleton, the light in their eye sockets dimming slightly.

“What kind of accident makes someone be almost completely forgotten?”, asked Frisk, almost jokingly. Had Dr. Gaster done something bad, like those celebrities that would appear in shameful episode after shameful episode, until nobody would talk about them anymore? The human doubted a scientist would do such a thing, though. 

“he got shattered across time and space.”, said Sans as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

It took a while for those words to be fully processed by Frisk’s brain.

“Oh... uh... what?”

There was a moment of silence, when neither Frisk nor Sans knew what to say next. The human put his hand on his forehead – his headache was getting worse, and that conversation certainly wasn’t going to help it, but he wasn’t thinking on backing down.

“um, how can i put this into words?”, said Sans more to himself than to Frisk. “like, at the time dr. gaster, alphys and i – we were doing experiences with... um... you can say it was time travel.”

“Time travel?”, asked Frisk, skeptically. It looked like Papyrus hadn’t been wrong, after all.

“we were trying to make it so the barrier would never have been made.”, explained Sans.

“By going back in time?”, he asked, confused. “That’s insane!”

Sans chuckled, and Frisk knew he had said something stupid. He felt dumb, but the whole thing was a bit too far-fetched for him to just believe in it that easily. He couldn’t be sure if the skeleton wasn’t just pulling a prank on him, either – which would be annoying, but not unexpected.

“i wish it would have been as simple as ‘going back in time’.”, said Sans, looking down pensively. “time is an _amazing_ thing, frisk. remember when i asked if you believed in alternate timelines, way back then?”

Of course Frisk remembered. It was the night he had told Sans what really had happened in the Underground six years before. The human simply nodded, a bit afraid of what the skeleton was going to tell him.

“you were almost right.”, said Sans, looking at him with a spark in his eyes, like they were talking about something they really enjoyed. “you said something along the lines of ‘when we make a decision, another universe is created for the alternative we didn’t pick’. you were in the right track, but it’s not that plain and simple. when we make a decision, hundreds of thousands of alternate universes are created, each with its own variables. some are really similar to each other, while others are radically different. and the most amazing thing we discovered is that they aren’t static – they keep going on, with the people in it living their lives, unaware of all of this.”

His head was really pounding now. That was a lot to take all in one go. But there was another thing... he remembered something Sans had told him on that same night they had brought the alternate timelines up, and felt his heart sinking a bit.

“Ok, I understood. I think.”, he said simplistically, though not with much confidence.

“heh, i imagine this might be all a bit overwhelming.”, replied the skeleton, looking to the ground again. “welp, the point is, we weren’t trying to go back to the past... we were more like trying to find a timeline in which a war between humans and monsters never broke. it was difficult to find it, because even if it didn’t happen when we know it happened, it would just happen anyway at a later point. but we did it. it existed. it was real. the perfect pacifist timeline.”

Sans tapped his fingers on the chair. Frisk could tell that the whole timeline stuff really excited him.

“our plan was to merge that timeline with ours. to do that, we’d need something to work as a link. after some research, we discovered that link had to be a live, sentient being. that meant it would have to be either me, alphys, or gaster. theoretically speaking, to mend the timelines would be like picking up two pieces of thread and tying a knot to join them together. we could send, i don’t know, a robot to do the job, but if they messed up we didn’t know what sort of disaster could happen.”

Sans slowly stopped tapping his fingers. His expression became less bright and more somber again.

“we built a machine that would allow one of us to go merge the timelines. we knew it would probably be dangerous, but we were _so_ close to breaking the barrier, or making it like it never existed, we couldn’t back down.”, said Sans, his voice calmer. “when it was completed, i volunteered to be the one, but dr. gaster didn’t allow me. he wanted to go instead. he said that i was young, with a whole life ahead of me, while he was old and didn’t have much to lose.”

Sans gave a pause to the story, and Frisk could identify true sorrow in his expression. The human knew what was going to happen, too.

“he entered the machine, and we turned it on, full of hope.”, they continued. “but dr. gaster never came back. for months, alphys and i attempted to find him across the timelines, and to be fair we did find some traces, but they were images and messages that didn’t make any sense. i’d like to believe that he died but... i think what happened to him was _much_ worse than that.”

That was a dark ending for someone who seemed to have been a brilliant scientist. Frisk wondered if Gaster was alive, hidden away somewhere between the timelines... he wondered if they were aware of what happened to them, or if their conscience shattered, not live, but not dead either. The human shivered with the thought. A fate worse than death, for sure.

“and the worst part is that everything remained the same, with one exception. everyone just... forgot about dr. gaster.” said Sans, his voice filled with grief. “no, forget isn’t the right word. it was like he had _never existed_. some kept with a faint memory of a royal scientist who built the core, like pap, but the majority of monsters just forgot everything about him. just like that. even alphys ended up forgetting... and i’m afraid someday i’ll forget too.”

Sans had a serious expression. Frisk had seen them like that a few times now, but he would never get used to it. The human felt sympathy for the skeleton – it was clear Dr. Gaster had been someone Sans once admired deeply. To see someone like that be forgotten must have been heartbreaking.

“when a monster dies...”, said Sans after a while. “their soul vanishes almost instantly – unlike a human soul, which remains somewhat intact. memory... is the only way a monster can keep existing in our world. that’s why... why i...”

They couldn’t complete it, but Frisk understood. The human had never seen Sans so upset before, but was happy they told him all that.

“I know him now.”, said Frisk, trying to sound comforting. “I won’t forget him.”

He had never met Gaster before, so he didn’t know if it counted, but Sans looked at him with gratitude, anyway.

“thanks, buddy.”

They remained silent for a while, the thing Frisk remembered a while before still bugging the back of his mind.

“Sans?”

“yeah?”

“The timeline in which I...”, Frisk didn’t know how to put it into words. “Which I saved everybody from the Underground. After everything you told me now... it’s real, right?”

To the human’s surprise, the skeleton seemed unsure of what to reply. It was a logical question – did they have any doubt about it?

“yeah, it is.”, they replied, stretching their bones. “but there’s no use complaining we’re not in it.”

Somehow, Frisk felt they were hiding something from him. They weren’t lying, but they weren’t telling the whole truth, either. There was something more to that – something that was missing, but what was it? The human could feel a memory sprouting in the depths of his mind, but he couldn’t make it clear. Plus, his headache didn’t make things any easier.

He turned around on the sofa, closing his eyes. He was tired – he wouldn’t learn anything new anymore at that time.

“I _really_ hope they are happy there.”, he mumbled, in a futile attempt to make himself feel better.

* * *

 

Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks. They walked, and walked and walked, never close to safety and always deeper into that land desolated by war. They’d see signs of destruction on cities, small villages and roads. Again, the only place where one could pretend a war wasn’t happening was in the woods, but progression was difficult and slower there.

In the meantime, MK’s leg healed very nicely. Frisk was impressed with the short time it took to fully heal, considering how severe of a wound it was, and to be fair, the yellow monster seemed to be equally impressed ( _“It’s magic, I guess. It’s always magic.”_ ). They could even run once again, and the group restarted to cover the regular amount of ground they used to.

As the hot days of summer started to contrast with chillier nights and a colder wind, indicating the approach of autumn, they found themselves taking refugee in a apartment building inside a fairly big city. It was nice to come across a large town, as supplies would be easier to find, but it came with a price. And that price was that a human resistance group was taking control of everything.

They learned it the hard way – as soon as they stepped inside the streets they were attacked (a situation Frisk wasn’t unfamiliar with, but that didn’t make it any less scary). Somehow, they managed to escape without any damage, hiding in a building. They settled for an apartment on the higher floors.

The human peeked into the window, watching a group of humans patrolling the streets.

“HE’S TAKING TOO LONG!”

Papyrus was walking from one side to the other of the living room. It was clear they were worried. Sans had left to check if he could find any useful information or supplies, but he hadn’t come back yet.

“Relax, Papyrus.”, said MK, throwing himself on a dusty sofa. “It’s Sans we’re talking about. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“WHAT IF THE HUMANS CAUGHT HIM!?”, replied the skeleton, biting their thumb.

“In that case, I feel _really_ sorry for those poor humans...”, stated MK, rolling his eyes. “Right, Frisk?”

Frisk glanced at the two monsters. Papyrus looked stressed out, while MK looked chilled – the extreme opposites right next to one another. Sunset cast an orange light into the room, lighting up the small particles of dust hovering in the air.

“Yeah! He’s fine, Papyrus.”, said Frisk, smiling. He wasn’t a hundred percent certain – one could never be in that situation – but he needed to reassure the taller skeleton everything would be okay.

“See? Just you wait an-”

_Whooosh!_

“AAAAAARGH!”, screamed the yellow monster, sitting up as Sans appeared on the sofa, right next to them. “ _Dammit_ , Sans! Don’t do that again!”

“whooops, sorry.”, said Sans, grinning and looking to the side in a mischievous manner. “didn’t mean to.”

The look in their eyes told Frisk otherwise, but the human decided not say anything. The shorter skeleton stood up and walked to the table, placing his backpack on top and unzipping it.

“WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG, SANS!?”, said Papyrus, trying to be mad, but the relief in their voice gave them away.

“sorry, pap.”, said Sans, placing canned food on the table. “some humans spotted me, but i managed to get away and got these.”

“That’s great!”, said Frisk, picking up a can. It didn’t seem to be spoiled, too, which was also a good sign.

“then i took a shortcut back here.”, he continued, winking at MK, who simply looked away, annoyed. “i also got some cool info.”

He picked up a folded paper and opened it on the table. It turned out to be a map of the town. Everybody looked down as Sans started to point out locations.

“so, turns out there’s a human resistance group here, as you noticed. a militia of sorts. i saw some of their focal points being here, here and there.”

He pointed to three places nearby where they were.

“Those are close.”, stated the human, looking at the skeleton. “Do you think they really are in control of this town?”

“from their almost instant attack from before, i’d say yes.”, said Sans, scratching his chin.

“So they are not the human group that is going after Undyne.”, concluded the human.

“considering their ‘territorial’ manners, yeah, that’s unlikely.”

There was an uncomfortable silence where everyone thought the same thing.

“Why the hell are we here?”, asked MK, rhetorically.

“normally, i’d ask the same thing.”, replied Sans, sounding excited. “but look at the map. there’s a reason this human group took over this city.”

Sans pointed to a location on the north of town, where a big block was drown. Frisk tilted his head to read its name, and his heart skipped a beat when he did it.

“A GUN FACTORY?”, said Papyrus before the human could do so.

“yep, and from what i heard it’s well equipped, too.”, replied their brother, clasping their hands. “because of that, it’s their headquarters, and it’s where they keep their vehicles.”

From their tone of voice, Frisk reckoned they had something in mind, and he didn’t have to ask to know what it was. The real question was: _how_?

“we need to go there.”, they revealed. “get some weapons. get a vehicle. we will cover a lot more ground.”

“Are you crazy?”, said MK, spontaneously. “We’ll never get past their security!”

“we gotta try.”, replied Sans. “plus, we can always shortcut back here if anything goes wrong.”

The skeleton looked expectantly to everyone, but no one seemed to be really excited about that idea.

“c’mon, guys.”, pleaded Sans, looking to Frisk. “frisk, you know you need a better weapon, or at least more ammunition.”

The human looked at his new backpack tossed into a corner of the room. He found it during the past month, as his previous one was left in the cabin. Inside it was the handgun he picked up from the cabin’s shed, but he hadn’t used it since that night. If he remembered right, the magazine had three bullets – not a really useful weapon if he kept it like that.

He wasn’t really fond of it. He didn’t like the feeling of pointing a gun, nor the way it fit in his hands – it felt _wrong_. It brought back bad memories. And yet...

“Yeah.”, he said, conformed. “I know. But I’d like to stick with the handgun. At least it’s easy to use.”

Sans smiled, happy to hear someone finally agreeing with him.

“cool.”, he said. “so we’re doing this or what?”

He looked at MK and Papyrus. The taller skeleton looked intensively at the table, while the yellow monster didn’t seem to be wiling to take part in the plan. They looked at Frisk, who simply shrugged. Did they have any other choice, in the end?

“I guess so.”, said MK.

“UM... SO WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?”, asked Papyrus, putting his hand on the back of his neck.

As expected, Sans seemed to have already thought about that. He leaned slightly against the table, looking at everyone.

“we’re a small group. if we plan it right, we can sneak past them.”

“So it’s a stealth mission, huh?”, stated MK.

“precisely.”, agreed Sans. “we’ll have to be really silent, which means that you, papyrus, should not talk by any means.”

* * *

 

Sans went back outside that evening a couple times to go near the gun factory and watch how well secured it was. It turned out to be just as MK had predicted – the human group patrolled the place intensively, which meant that entering the building would surely be a challenge.

Papyrus suggested disguising Frisk as one of the militia’s members, but his brother dismissed the idea saying they probably knew there was a group of monsters-plus-human loose in town, so they’d surely be paying attention to that. As hard as it would be, a sneaky approach had a higher probability of success, even if just by a little.

Based on Sans’ findings, they designed a plan and passed it through over and over, until everyone knew it by heart. Frisk thought it was a solid plan – at least until the part they actually got into the building. Unfortunately, the skeleton had no idea what it looked like inside, so they would be running blind there. They had to be prepared to fight, and the human didn’t like the prospective. Even if Sans could teleport everyone back in case things got out of control, it was still dangerous. They’d also have to make their way to the factory by foot – Sans’ teleportation made a noise that could draw attention, which didn’t matter much if they were trying to escape, but was a crucial detail if they were trying to sneak by place with tight security.

A little past midnight, they decided to finally head out and start the plan, with a cold breeze blowing through the air. Sans and Papyrus weren’t bothered by it, just as heat also wasn’t a big deal for them. Frisk and MK, on the other hand, could be affected by climate changes, so they had to be prepared. The human wore a parka-like coat he had found in an abandoned house, while MK wore a wool sweater. Frisk cut its sleeves so it would fit the yellow monster’s body better.

It was a moonless light, which meant things were harder to see. In turn, that could also work in their favor, as darkness helped them hide. They made their way through the streets silently, avoiding the human patrols. From time to time, Frisk would put his hand in his pocket to feel if the handgun was there. He had taken it from his backpack so it would be easier to draw in an emergency – not that with three bullets only it would be much help.

Finally, they reached the gun factory. As they had seen before, it was on the northern edge of the city – surrounded by a regular chain link fence they would have to climb. They carefully walked around it until they found the spot on the other side of the fence that was full of trees. They climbed it silently, and Sans helped MK through with his blue magic. Frisk could see the faint lights from the flashlights the humans on patrol were holding.

They walked using the trees’ shadows as undercover until they could see the building. From the point they were, they could see the corner of the factory, and by it there was one of the entrances, just as Sans had told them before. Two humans – a man and a woman –, guarded the door, each holding a semi-automatic machine gun. Some other people, armed as well, passed by at regular intervals. Frisk heard one of them yawning as they got closer, and another saying how tedious of a work that was.

“okay.”, whispered Sans, looking intensively at the two humans guarding the entrance. “now’s the tricky part. are you all ready?”

Of course they weren’t. They all nodded.

“nice. mk, you and i will head over that bush as soon as frisk draws attention.”

Sans pointed at a particularly messy, dirty bush far away from the corner of the factory. They had discussed that part before, but MK was scandalized regardless.

“What? _There_!? No way!”

They all looked at the yellow monster, confused. MK looked back at each of them, seeking support, but didn’t receive any in return.

“Dude, you can’t be serious!”, he said, his voice slightly thinner than usual. “What if there’s a... I don’t know, what if there’s a _snake_ there!?”

Up until that point, Sans had been very serious about that mission, but he grinned automatically with the reptilian monster’s response.

“hey, that’s no way to talk about your relatives.”

They heard a soft snort coming from Papyrus. They all looked at them, who in turn avoided eye-contact, embarrassed. Sans opened his mouth, clearly amazed. That had been practically a laugh. 

“okay now, we gotta focus.”, said the shorter skeleton, managing to regain his composure after that little situation. “look, mk, i’m not feeling so hot about going in there too, but we talked about this and we need to do it. understand?”

MK looked down, trying to think of something to say, but couldn’t come up with anything. They just sighed, defeated.

“Fine...”

“great.”, said Sans, looking at the human. “frisk. when you’re ready.”

If they depended on that, they’d never carry on with the plan. Well, better be over with that. Frisk inhaled deeply, putting his hands in a shell form around his mouth and screaming.

“HELP!”

A second after he did it, he thought that plan was actually really stupid. How did _that_ sound good on paper?

For better or worse, it worked. They heard exclamations coming from the people all around them, and soon Frisk saw the lights from the flashlights being pointed at the trees where they were hiding. Sans and MK rapidly moved around, while the human and Papyrus walked back towards the chain link fence they had climbed before.

Frisk got his back against a tree, while the taller skeleton did the same against another, by his side. They were tall, but skinny, which meant the tree had just enough width to be a fit hiding spot. Soon enough, the human could hear the steps in the grassy ground from the patrols walking by the trees, trying to spot any signs of unusual activity. He held his breath when they walked close by, praying they wouldn’t notice anything.

Seconds that seemed more like hours passed when he heard the footsteps getting further away, indicating the humans were searching another section of trees. Frisk signed for Papyrus to follow him, and they did. Being as silent as possible, they made their way back to the “front”, where they could see the factory once again. The human’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the entrance was now unguarded.

And then, a loud noise came from their right. That was Sans’ sign, which meant they had very little time. He and Papyrus sprinted to the entrance, expecting for everyone to notice them and start shooting.

But that never happened, and instead they found themselves safe and sound inside the factory. They were in a corridor very well illuminated by a white light, which made Frisk’s eyes hurt, as they had gotten used to the darkness. He heard some shooting outside, and suddenly there were steps approaching from beyond the corridor. 

With his heart beating fast, he looked around and found a door. Grabbing Papyrus’ arm, he led them towards it and entered the room, which turned out to be just a small broom cabinet. They closed themselves in and waited. The footsteps came running and passed by the door, getting distant until they finally seemed to head outside once again.

Waiting a few moments, they re-entered the corridor once again. The sounds from outside had ceased too, and the human started to get nervous. Papyrus seemed to be going through the same, after all, they were both thinking the same thing.

Were Sans and MK alright?

They looked at each other, unsure of what to do. As if reading their minds, the shorter skeleton and the yellow monster just bursted through the corridor entrance, running at full speed and not showing any signs of stopping.

“let’s go!”

It wasn’t necessary to say anything more. The four ran away, going through the mazy corridors just trying to get away from the entrance. Frisk didn’t even know where he was anymore, nor how they would head back outside, but he didn’t care. He was just worried their footsteps would draw attention from the humans inside the building, but strangely enough they didn’t find any.

A while after, they started to slow down the pace until they came into a halt, panting. Frisk knew his body was full of adrenaline – he could run for hours, if necessary, and believed that with the others it was the same.

“O... kay.”, said MK, still catching his breath. He didn’t speak loudly, but his words still echoed through the empty corridors. “What do we do now?”

“we need to search for ammo for frisk.”, said Sans, looking around, probably thinking where they should go. “then we get outta here and try to get a vehicle.”

“We’ll be really lucky if we make it that far.”, replied the yellow monster.

“geez, always the downer, aren’t ya?”, mocked Sans. “c’mon, let’s go.”

With that, they started to walk through the corridors, their ears attentive to the smallest of sounds or hints of danger. There wasn’t anything special about the factory, but it looked like it was kept clean. Frisk was used to see an state of abandonment as soon as he entered indoors, so that was a nice change of pace – life threatening situation and all considered.

When they came by a door, Sans would listen closely for any signs of movement before opening it. For a while, they didn’t find anything really useful – only offices, meeting rooms and bathrooms – all kept tidy, for some reason.

“But why?”

They stopped dead in their tracks as they heard a voice echo through the corridor. Sans, who lead the way, raised his arm in a sign for everyone to stop moving. They held their breaths, paying attention.

“We think there may be intruders outside.”, said another voice. “We need support. Don’t worry, I’ll guard the storage while you’re at it.”

The voices sounded they came from the adjacent corridor that crossed the one they were in. Sans motioned to everyone get against the wall, and got closer to the corner.

“Fine... but I’m sure it’s nothing! It’s always nothing...”, replied the first voice.

“Stop complaining and just go!”, commanded the second, annoyed.

They heard tired, reluctant footsteps getting further. Sans quickly peeked on the corridor, then turned to the rest of the group.

“there’s... someone... there.”, Sans communicated simply moving his mouth, not making any sound.

“What... do we... do?”, asked Frisk in return in the same manner. MK and Papyrus simply looked nervously at the skeleton.

Sans seemed to be in conflict, the lights on his eye-sockets dimming slightly. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Frisk knew exactly what was going on inside his head – he was thinking of doing something he wasn’t particularly excited about. However, the human knew that never stopped him from doing anything.

The skeleton glanced back at the group, but nobody did anything. He then peeked again on the corridor. Suddenly, he made a fast, precise movement with his hand, and a bone materialized, projecting itself across the adjacent corridor. They all heard a loud “thump”, followed by the sound of someone falling on the ground.

Sighing, Sans walked inside the corridor, making a sign for everyone to follow him. With a sense of dread, they did it, and the first thing to be noticed was, obviously, the man slumped over the ground. Frisk must have made a scared expression, one that didn’t pass unnoticed by Sans.

“relax, i just knocked him out. he’s simply unconscious.”

As they approached the militia member, they could see that was indeed the truth. He had been simply knocked out by Sans’ attack, falling unconscious in front of a large, iron door. By his side, the same type of semi-automatic machine gun used by the others on the resistance group was thrown out in the ground. Sans picked it up, analyzing the item.

“huh. what do you think of this, buddo?”, asked Sans, offering the gun to the human.

The human’s hands got colder. He clenched his fists, shaking his head.

“It’s rapid-fire.”, he replied. “I’d probably just end up shooting myself or one of us if I tried to use it.”

The truth was that he didn’t want to hold _that_ type of weapon not even if his life depended on it, but technically he wasn’t lying. His aim with the handgun was pretty off, from what he could tell from the only time he used it. He’d probably lose control with the recoil of a machine gun.

“welp, that wouldn’t be good.”, said Sans, letting his arm loose, but still holding the weapon. “can’t be helped, for now.”

Frisk nodded, grateful the skeleton had understood. He then shifted his attention to the iron door they were in front of. If he heard the two humans right before, the resistance group was worried about securing it, which meant...

“What’s in there?”, asked MK.

Giving their characteristical smile, Sans placed his hand on the doorknob. 

“only one way to find out.”, he replied, opening the door and entering. The lights were already on, which was strange considering no one was there.

Frisk gasped as soon as he realized what the room was. Of all the possible places, they actually found it. An ammunition storage. All sorts of magazines, shells, bullets and gun parts lined up neatly in shelves against the walls. By its corner, there was a desk with some loose bullets and empty magazines – maybe that was where they reloaded them. Frisk reckoned that was probably a tedious work.

“welp, that’s perfect, huh?”, said Sans, beaming.

It was impressive indeed, but Frisk wasn’t sure if he felt exactly happy about being in a room of that sort. Still, he knew he would find useful things in there, so that was certainly a plus. There was no time to lose.

“Uh... not meaning to break it but...”, called MK, still outside the storage. “But what are we gonna do about... you know, _him_?”

He motioned his head towards the unconscious militia’s member. Upon discovering the room they had been guarding, Frisk almost forgot about them.

“oh.”, said Sans, his grin faltering a little. It seemed he had forgotten about them, too. “that’s simple. leave it to me.”

The skeleton pointed his hand towards the man, casting his blue magic, making them lift above ground. They reminded Frisk of some sort of creepy doll, with their limbs loosely moving around.

Sans looked around for a while before spotting a locker against a wall on the opposite side of the room. He walked towards it and opened it, while he made the man “follow” him as he did it. Then, he put them inside it, closing its door afterwards. As soon as he released his magic, Frisk heard some thuds inside the locker, as gravity took its effect again.

“welp, that’s it.”, said Sans, turning around and rubbing his hands. “now, let’s see what we can find here. mk, can you watch the locker?”

MK didn’t look like they were very excited about the idea, but they simply sighed, conformed.

“Okay. Watch the locker. That’s an okay task. Not creepy at all.”

“glad you liked it.”, said Sans sarcastically while the reptilian monster frowned. “let’s go, frisk. the sooner we find what we need, the better.”

The skeleton didn’t have to say it twice, as Frisk also didn’t want to spend much time in there. The human immediately started to search through the ammo boxes for ammunition he could use in his handgun. He quickly learned there were a lot of magazine types – and that he didn’t understand anything about it. He simply took the handgun from his pocket and tried to load them to see if they fitted. It was difficult to find the right type, which made the human annoyed. Why were there so many? What’s the difference between a Glock 17 and a M22 anyway?

Then, a little set of boxes catch his attention. He picked one up and read the label – it was a suppressor for pistols. He took it out what turned out to be a black, cylindrical object, almost the same size from the muzzle to the rear sight of the handgun. A silence suppressor would surely be useful for practice purposes – the muffled sound of the shots wouldn’t call so much attention, meaning he could train his shooting with more safety.

Not actually expecting it to fit, he attempted to install it within the handgun barrel, and to his surprise, it made a clicking sound. Did that actually work? Well, he wouldn’t know for a while – the suppressor made it impossible to put the handgun back in the pocket, so he just took it out and put it away in his backpack.

He proceeded to the table on the corner, where people would reload the magazines. The human expected maybe to see something that would help him understand which type of magazine he should grab. Instead, his eyes fell on the calendar on the table. It was a simple calendar from that year, and the days that had already passed by were crossed. He felt something tickling inside him when he noticed the last day that was crossed. Was it actually _possible_? The day they were in..?

“Guys..?”, called Frisk, slowly. “Uh... what day is today?”

Frisk was with his eyes fixed on the calendar, so he couldn’t actually see the others reactions from his question, but from their silence they clearly didn’t expect it.

“um... let’s see...”, said Sans, pensive. “it was september 20th... but now we’re past midnight... so it is the 21th?”

That matched with the date on the calendar. Yes, it was possible. For the first time, the thought made him smile. He turned around to face the group. They all seemed weirded out by his reaction.

“What’s up with today?”, asked MK, raising an eyebrow.

Frisk crossed his arms and looked to the side, unsure of how he should answer. Still, the silly smile on his face didn’t disappear.

“It’s my birthday.”, he replied, simplistically.

Realization came to each and all their faces, and it was funny to see the transformation on their expressions. Everybody gave a true, genuine smile.

“Hey, congrats, man!”, said MK.

Papyrus was being faithful to his agreement of not speaking a single word during the mission, so he walked towards Frisk and gave them a hug, almost crushing them with an unexpected force. The human awkwardly hugged them back – it felt warm, like a regular human hug. But it smelled like bones.

“heh, congratulations, buddo.”, said Sans, approaching as Papyrus broke the hug. “here’s your birthday gift.”

He passed an arm around Frisk’s shoulder and handed the human some pistol magazines. The human was skeptical the skeleton would actually find the right one, but picked one up out of politeness and attempted to reload the handgun. It smoothly fit the magazine port.

“so what’s your age now?”

“17.”, Frisk replied. “It’s just... wow.”

In all honesty, since the war had started he felt like time itself had frozen, but of course that wasn’t the case – he knew all too well he had been walking through the wreckages and horrors of it for four months. He remembered his conversation with Mrs. Magda the day before the war broke out, and it felt like it was forever ago. In that meantime, something inside him had changed. He was scared to death, and everyday was a struggle, but he felt hopeful. Hopeful one day things would get better. Hopeful that one day he would _make_ things get better.

And that filled him with determination.

“yeah...”, replied Sans, letting Frisk go as the human put the magazines on his backpack. “maybe we can have a party afterwards, heh. But now, we need to get out of this place. what do you think?”

“I’m in.”, replied the human. “Let’s do this!”

He looked to MK and Papyrus. That little moment seemed to have lifted their spirits up. Frisk could almost taste it in the air – the determination, this time not only in him, but in everybody. They could carry on with that mission. They could achieve their goals.

And that was when everything went wrong.

An alarm sounded off, with a loud, constant and piercing noise. They all jumped on their spots. The good feeling inside Frisk immediately waned, leaving only dread behind. What was going on?

“Guys!”, called MK, looking at an up corner of the room, his face turned pale. “Over there..!”

Frisk looked, and mentally cursed himself. They had been so absorbed by all the equipment inside the room – and the subsequent reveal of the human’s birthday – that they didn’t notice the security camera that was there, surveilling them all that time. How could they have been so dumb?

He could hear movement inside the building. The clock was ticking – they would be trapped if they didn’t act fast.

“crap, we need to go!”, said Sans. “c’mon, we can still do this!”

“W-what!?”, said MK, his face marked by terror. “Are you crazy!? We need to-”

But Sans had already kicked the door open. Papyrus just followed his brother behind, and Frisk didn’t think too much either and ran as well. The piercing noise of the alarm and the approaching sound of footsteps made it hard to think. He heard the yellow monster cursing, but they started to run too, accompanying the rest of the group.

“Intruders on the east wing!”

They turned into a corner just as some people started shooting at them, the shots hitting the wall instead. The loud sound of shooting was amplified by the echo from the corridors, making Frisk’s adrenaline quickly turn into pure, irrational panic. He was just following Sans, but the skeleton probably was just as lost as he was. The mazy factory just added a sense of claustrophobia that made the human feel even more trapped.

“Go! Go! Don’t let ‘em escape!”

They were lucky enough so that they weren’t coming across any dead ends. Sometimes, a group of humans would appear right in front of them, but they always had another escape route available. However, Frisk knew they couldn’t keep that up much longer – their luck would eventually run out, and that time there wouldn’t be anyone to save them.

“C’mon, don’t hold back!”

They kept a nice advantage from their pursuers, so they were hardly ever in range to be shot. Frisk had only one thing in mind, and that was to dismiss the human group. Only then they could actually think about the building layout and escape that place once and for all. The question was – would that actually be possible? It would be foolish to assume the militia didn’t know their own headquarters. it was only a matter of time before Frisk and the others got trapped.

“Go around! Go, GO!”

They were being hunted down aggressively. There was no way they could dismiss their pursuers for long. They’d have to teleport with Sans, but first they had to have a good enough advantage so the skeleton could do that. It didn’t help no one was thinking straight, as everyone was basically following their instincts.

With the sounds of gunshots and the alarm still buzzing constantly, Frisk couldn’t notice there were footsteps approaching from the front, and only when a man from the militia appeared in right up their faces was when the human noticed they were trapped.

Frisk froze in place as the man pointed his gun towards the one who was closer to him – MK, and pulled the trigger.

“kid..!”

Sans threw himself, getting the yellow monster out of the way just as the man started shooting. Frisk instinctively covered his face with his hands and fell to the ground.

“NO!”, yelled Papyrus.

The taller skeleton raised his hand and summoned a wall of blue bones that appeared from the floor and went all the way up to the roof, separating them from the man. He, in turn, gave a few steps back, confused, and ran away, screaming things Frisk didn’t understand.

The human looked around. There were gun marks on the wall nearby him, but he wasn’t hit. He couldn’t believe in his luck. He was so shocked that it took a while for him to notice Papyrus was offering a hand for him to stand up. He took it, his legs feeling as if they had turned into jelly.

“ARE YOU OKAY, HUMAN?”, asked Papyrus, concerned.

If by okay they meant “alive”, then the answer would be yes – because anything beyond that would be too much. The human nodded.

MK and Sans were up as well – the latter resting their hands on their knees, while the former looked at them with a mix of shock and worry.

“S-sans, you... you...”, said MK, his voice failing.

Sans then fully stood up, his face scrunching up for a second.

“i’m f-fine.”, he simply said. “we gotta get out.”

His expression was a desperate one – and to see Sans desperate meant things were quickly getting out of control. They had to do something. Frisk rapidly scanned their immediate perimeter, and his vision locked onto a door they had passed by. The human ran towards and opened it, revealing a set of stairs that led to an upper floor.

“Over here!”, he yelled as the approaching sounds of their pursuers got closer once again.

Everyone ran upstairs, and as Sans – the last one – entered it, they started to hear the gunshots again. Frisk almost tripped and fell the stairs a couple of times, but he always managed to keep up the pace. As Papyrus burst the door to the second floor open, revealing that the corridor layout was about the same of the first one, they entered it and ran, once again, yet through another maze of corridors. That time, however, Frisk stopped hearing the movement from the militia, which meant they were at a really good advantage. All they had to do was stop and take a “shortcut” out of that place.

Papyrus seemed to have the same thing in mind as he lead the group through one of the doors, into a small office. The taller skeleton stopped in the middle, panting. Frisk closed the door as he entered, letting a sigh of relief. They were closer to safety – only one step left now.

“WE GOTTA GET OUT!”, said Papyrus, looking at his brother.

Sans nodded, the light on his eye-sockets disappearing for a moment. Frisk reckoned they felt frustrated because the second half of their plan had failed, but there was nothing left for them to do. The situation had become far too dangerous for them to keep going like that.

“yep...”, replied the skeleton. “okay... just grab me... i’ll take a shortcut.”

Everybody quickly approached Sans. Papyrus grabbed their left hand, while Frisk grabbed the right one, holding MK, just as he had done last time. The shorter skeleton closed their eyes, and Frisk did the same, getting ready for the teleportation. They braced themselves for the upcoming “shortcut”.

But it never happened.

Instead, Frisk felt the skeleton’s grasp loosening as they collapsed on the floor. He opened his eyes, looking at the skeleton, confused. What was going on? Sans attempted to stand up once again, but didn’t manage.

“S-SANS?”, called Papyrus, kneeling, extremely worried. “A-ARE YOU OKAY?”

Frisk and MK crouched down too. A foreboding feeling was in the air. Sans’ breath was quick and shallow. The light on their eye-sockets dimmed for a bit.

“damn... heh... i guess i’m not as young as i used to be...”

Frisk bit his lip. Something was wrong, he knew it, but he didn’t know what. With a feeling of tightness around his chest, he took Sans’ backpack from him and tossed by his side, grabbing the skeleton and turning them around so he could see their front. His whole head spun with what he saw.

“ _Holy_..!”, exclaimed MK, shocked.

The human became speechless. Sans’ shirt was marked all over it with gun marks, but that wasn’t all. A bright red liquid poured from his wounds, soaking his shirt and hoodie. It had an awful resemblance with human blood, yet...

“SANS!”, said Papyrus, his voice even louder than usual. “W-WHAT..? WHAT IS THIS!?”

Sans breath was getting quicker, and he was looking at a point above his head, seemingly having difficult to focus. Nevertheless, he managed to look at Papyrus.

“get outta here.”, he said, his voice full of sorrow and desperation. “i can’t be saved.”

“WHAT!? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, BROTHER?”, replied Papyrus, taking his brother’s hands in his. “W-WE ARE NOT LEAVING YOU BEHIND!”

Sans made a low, weird noise, as if he was chuckling, but his erratic breath made it sound somewhat disturbing.

“pap... heh... i...”

“NO!”

Frisk felt tears forming on his eyes. MK looked desolated. That _couldn’t_ be happening. It _had_ to be a nightmare. It felt like one.

He noticed that a white powder was beginning to accumulate all around Sans, some of it stained red. It sent chills down the human spine. Despite all the desperate wishes in his heart, it was happening. There was no denying it. He felt the same way he did when Toriel died all those years before.

“NO... NO..!”, said Papyrus, his voice desolated. He was about to cry. “SOMEONE... WE CAN... DO SOMETHING! RIGHT!?”

The way he looked at Frisk when he said that was too much. That desperate hope – the human couldn’t take it. They looked away, and felt something stuck in their throat as Papyrus began to cry.

“Sans, I...”, began MK, his voice full of guilt.

The skeleton looked at the yellow monster. Cracks had appeared on their face, and some parts were dusty, making it look like they were melting.

“sshh... it’s okay...”, they replied, forcing a smile. “i... need... want you to...”

With a breaking noise, both the skeleton’s arms broke down as if they were crumbling plaster. It formed a pool of dust by their sides. Papyrus sobs got louder, and Frisk swallowed.

Maintain the focus on Sans’ face.

 _Don’t look_.

Don’t look anywhere else.

“want you... to... stick together... until...”, Sans attempted to say, his voice very thin. Frisk had no idea how he could hear it. “until... the end... promise?”

He looked to the human. Frisk’s voice was gone. He wanted to say everything would be fine, but that would be a blatant lie. Even if he wanted to believe in it, it would still be a lie. _Nothing_ would be fine. There was no escaping it. He simply nodded, and the skeleton gave a weak smile, more cracks appearing on their skull. 

With one last bit of strength, Sans turned his face to look at Papyrus, who was sobbing uncontrollably. It seemed every second the taller skeleton spent looking at their brother at that state drained their sanity.

“pap... i... i love you... bro...”

Papyrus’ whole body was shaking. They opened their mouth, but they couldn’t do anything but cry. That whole situation was tearing them apart, and it was too much for Frisk to see. The human looked down, clenching his fists. He felt MK was close, just as shocked and hurting as he was.

“I... I...”, Papyrus tried to say. “SANS, I...”

And the inevitable happened. Sans’ body gave in and crumbled – his existence reduced to the white-and-red dust under the shirt and hoodie he left behind.


	5. Somewhere Else

In that exact moment, the Earth was still turning around its axis. Somewhere, there were people worryingly watching the news, concerned about the monsters that had suddenly appeared, wondering if one day they would invade their countries too. Somewhere – somewhere else – time was moving forward.

But for Frisk, nothing about that mattered. His world came into a sudden halt. There were noises around him, the siren still sounded, but he didn’t care. It was like his soul had left his body, and he had become an empty shell.

His heart ached. His head contorted, trying to assimilate what had just happened. He could hear someone calling for him, but it sounded distant. He kept staring at the white powder all over the ground, really wanting to look away, but not finding any strength to do so.

Not powder. _Dust_.

During that state, his hearing was mostly muffled, but sometimes it would clear up, like his brain was an old radio tuning in and out. He heard Toriel’s voice telling him to be careful. He saw Asgore’s shocked expression when they were killed by that murderous flower. He smelled Mrs. Magda’s spilled blood when she died. Everything was coming back at him, and it was too much. He couldn’t handle it. He’d go insane.

He saw the scene right before his eyes – they were open, of course – but it was like the images didn’t manage to be processed by his brain. He couldn’t tell what was going on, or if he was in danger. And honestly, it didn’t matter. Not anymore.

“Frisk!”

He blinked a few times, and Earth began to move again. His hearing cleared up. He snapped out of it, and looked to the one who had called him – MK, who was still kneeled down by his side.

“T-thank god!”, he said, sounding relieved. “You... you were...”

Frisk shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts. He looked at Sans’ dust spread across the ground, an unbelievable amount of sorrow inside him, and still growing. However, that time he knew he couldn’t stay there. The shorter skeleton was no longer with them, but that was no excuse for them to just stay there and get captured – or most likely, killed.

“I know.”, the human replied, his voice failing. He hacked to clear his throat. “Sorry.”

Along with the everlasting siren, he could hear the running footsteps of the militia’s members getting closer to the room they were in. They had little time if they wanted to escape – and the “shortcut” option was out for good.

“We need to go!”, said MK with a sense of urgency on his voice, standing up.

Frisk stood up too, but then looked at Papyrus, who remained in the same position. They didn’t say a word, and that filled the human with a bad feeling. He walked around their brother’s remains and crouched down by their side. The taller skeleton was staring catatonically at the dust, their mouth half-open with a silent scream that never came out.

“Papyrus.”, he called, his voice low.

As expected, there was no reaction. The skeleton didn’t move an inch, as if they hadn’t heard him at all. Frisk noticed that was probably the way he was a few moments prior, too.

“Papyrus.”, he called again, his voice louder. “We have to leave.”

Still no reaction. In the distance, Frisk could hear the militia getting closer. They had seconds to leave that room.

“Papyrus, I’m really... _really_ sorry. You’re hurt. I’m hurt too. But we can’t keep in here!”

“It’s no use!”, said MK, glancing at the door they came through, panicking. “Oh god, what do we do!?”

And Papyrus kept still. The easy solution: leave the skeleton there. But Frisk was fed up with easy solutions. No – he’d bring them back even if it was the last thing he’d do.

They would stick together.

“Papyrus!”, he called once more, sounding loud and clear. “C’mon!”

That time, Frisk saw, perhaps, the skeleton’s eye socket twitching for a second, but they still didn’t move at all. The human closed his hands, knowing he was running out of options.

“They’re almost here..!”

“I’m sorry, Papyrus...”

He closed his eyes for a brief moment before grabbing Papyrus’ shoulders and turning them so they would face him. Although they weren’t looking at their brother’s dust anymore, their expression didn’t change. They weren’t aware of their surroundings at all.

With a quick and precise movement, Frisk threw his arm back and slapped Papyrus in the face with force, making a hollow sound. The tough surface of the skull hurt his hand in return. He flinched, grabbing his hand in an act of reflex.

However, the shock was enough to bring the skeleton back. He looked at Frisk, putting his hand where the human had hit. He looked utterly miserable, but at least he was out of his hypnotic state.

“We have to leave.”, stated Frisk, looking Papyrus’ in the eyes decisively. 

The skeleton nodded and stood up as the human did so. MK rapidly approached them.

“Let’s go!”, he said, turning around and starting to run to the door on the opposite side of the room.

Papyrus didn’t say a word and merely followed the yellow monster. Frisk gave a step forward, but then stopped and looked at Sans’ dust. It was so weird to think just an hour before they were still alive and well. Then, just like that, they left, no longer belonging to this world.

Frisk felt a heaviness in his heart that almost plucked him to the ground. He glanced at the other two monsters who were waiting by the door. Papyrus looked down, while MK stared at the human, confused as to why he wasn’t rushing.

The footsteps of the militia were really close.

He made a snap decision. Crouching down, he opened his backpack and took an empty plastic water bottle.

“Frisk!”, called MK. “We don’t have time!”

But he wasn’t listening. With his hands shaking a little, he poured some of the skeleton’s dust – the part which wasn’t stained red – inside the bottle. Getting in contact with the powder made him slightly sick, but he didn’t back down.

“Whoa, what the _hell_ , dude!?”, exclaimed MK, scandalized.

Frisk quickly shoved the bottle inside his backpack, and before standing up once again he picked Sans’ backpack too. There were probably useful supplies that couldn’t go to waste there. He wore it on his front, his body sandwiched by the two bags.

As he ran towards the monsters, Papyrus opened the door, and just before they got into the adjacent corridor he heard someone kicking the door they had came through open.

“Found them!”

They started shooting, but missed. The trio ran at full speed, but for some reason Frisk’s thoughts were clear, as he managed to keep his panic under control – perhaps because of the emotional shock he just went. He had a clear objective in his mind: to get out of the facility.

He knew they would have to get back to the first floor if they wanted to do that, but it was hard finding their way in the mazy corridors. Sometimes they would go through the offices, but it often felt they were running in circles. It was hard to come up with a plan when they were being chased.

It seemed, however, that luck decided to be on their side once again. As they were running across a corridor, Frisk spotted a huge paper hanging on the wall just a little ahead, and noticed it was a map of the factory.

Now that was just what they needed.

“Stop!”, he yelled, and the two other monsters obeyed. “MK! Map! Exit!”

It wasn’t necessary to say anything else, the yellow monster nodded and started to study the map intensively, trying to spot an exit. Papyrus kept looking to the ground, placing his right hand on his left elbow, as if half embracing himself. Frisk turned around. They were still being chased – that much was obvious – so he drew the handgun from his pocket and pointed forward.

“I’ll... I’ll hold them off!”, stated Frisk, trying to sound reassuring.

In that moment, a couple of militia members entered the corridor, and Frisk instinctively pulled the trigger. The loud bang from the gun startled him, but he shot a couple more times. He missed – but their pursuers were caught in surprise as they didn’t expect the human to fight back. They retreated back from where they came from, but Frisk kept shooting. He didn’t know if they had gone for good or if they were just waiting for an opening to shoot back.

MK was busy reading the map, and Papyrus wasn’t in any conditions to help him. Frisk was well aware that once the magazine ran out of bullets they would start shooting if they were waiting, and the trio would stand no chance. The rest of the ammo was inside his backpack, and by the time it would take for him to open it and reload they would already be dead.

“Ok, done!”, stated MK as Frisk pulled the trigger one more time, only to find out he had run out of bullets.

He turned around and started to run, the other two monsters following him closely. He heard shooting and screaming behind him, but they had already gained a good advantage.

“Left!”, commanded MK, and they turned into the left corner of a corridor.

They were still playing that dangerous game of cat and mouse – only this time they knew what they were doing, and if anything, that increased their chances of survival.

“Right!”

That filled the human with determination.

“Stairs on the right!”

They did as the reptilian monster commanded and went down the stairs back to the ground floor, all of them skipping some of the steps for more speed.

“Left!”

The alarm sounded closer, which meant they were near its source. The piercing noise made Frisk’s ear hurt.

“Left!”

They got into a particularly long corridor, and sped up. Long corridors meant they could easily be shot from behind if they weren’t quick enough. By the end, there was an iron double door.

“Keep going! We’re almost there!”

That gave Frisk the motivation he needed for that last boost of speed he wanted to do. Just a little longer and they would get out of that hellish place. They would be free.

“Just one more room..!”

The human kicked the door open.

They were in a large room where Frisk reckoned was used to actually mount and customize firearms. There were large tables surrounded by all sorts of machinery. The room itself was composed by shades of gray and white, and it looked like it once was a rather depressing working environment. Still, that wasn’t what caught the human’s attention.

It was all the militia inside the room, pointing their guns at the trio. Frisk immediately raised both of his arms, still holding his handgun on his left hand. Papyrus did the same. If fear wasn’t the predominant feeling in the moment, the human would have felt frustrated – they were so close, yet so far from their freedom.

“Drop the weapon!”, commanded a woman directly in front of them. She was the only one not holding a gun. 

Frisk immediately opened his hand, letting the gun fall to the ground. They were severely outnumbered – any kind of resistance would be futile and would only get them killed. His eyes were fixed on the exit on the other side of the room. What could they do? Make a run for it? They have been lucky so far, but the human thought that would be asking for too much.

Everyone pointed their guns at them, and tension filled the air. One wrong movement and the trio would be as good as dead. Frisk’s mind raced, trying to find a solution. Glancing at their faces, he noticed they were unprepared for the situation that had presented. Perhaps they didn’t have to deal with intruders since they took control of the town? In any case, that was hardly a good thing – on their eyes, Frisk and the monsters were a threat that needed to be dealt with, one way or another.

He heard the iron door behind him being opened once again, followed by a set of steps. He didn’t dare to look behind – the situation was so volatile someone could start shooting if he did – but despite that he knew they were surrounded.

Was that it? Would it end there? What could they do? Fighting was not an option – not a reasonable one, at least, but there had to be something else they could do. Frisk had no idea what it was, but of one thing he was certain – he needed to get his group out of the factory safely.

He sighed. Fighting would only make things worse, and running away wasn’t even possible. That meant there was only one thing left to do.

_Act._

“We mean no harm.”, said Frisk, trying to keep his voice steady.

Some people shivered and pointed their guns in a more aggressive manner at the human, but fortunately nobody shot. He held his breath, and had the feeling MK and Papyrus were doing the same. 

“Who are you? What are you doing with those _monsters_?”, said the same woman who commanded Frisk to drop his weapon earlier.

The way she said the last question – with a hint of shock and disgust – bothered him, but that was the opening he needed. If he answered the questions and said the right things, they could get out unharmed. He knew it was possible – he’d done it before.

“They aren’t fighting.”, replied the human. He could feel all the eyes on the room were fully focused on him. “I... I was alone when I found them, and we’ve been traveling together ever since. We’re just trying to survive. We don’t want any trouble.”

There. Easy, simple, direct. He didn’t tell the whole truth, but he didn’t lie either, which was probably a good thing to do.

“If you don’t want any trouble, then why did you break into here?”, inquired the woman, imposing.

Frisk had a ready answer to that.

“We’re running short on supplies. We had no other choice but steal what you had here.”

“What did you take?”

“Just some handgun ammo and a suppressor.”

The woman broke the eye contact with Frisk for a moment, pondering on what to do.

“Adam.”, she called. “Check their bags and see if they are telling the truth.”

He didn’t turn around to look, but he felt someone unzipping his backpack on his back and checking the contents. They did the same thing with Sans’ backpack, which the human was wearing on the front. Finally, they walked to Papyrus and checked their bag. The whole affair lasted a few minutes which were filled with tension.

“He says the truth, ma’am.”, said the man called Adam, and Frisk held himself from sighing with relief, as that would most likely be interpreted the wrong way.

“What did they take?”

“Nine beretta magazines with 15 bullets each, and a suppressor.”, replied the man. “They have some other stuff, mostly food and first-aid, but they are not the type we have here, so they must have taken it from another place.”

The woman nodded, looking down for a while, deep in thought. Then, she looked fiercely into Frisk’s eyes once again, and suddenly the human felt very tiny.

“What made you _think_ it was a good idea to come here to steal our ammunition?”, she asked.

What really made everyone agree to go there was because of the vehicles, but they didn’t need to know that. Frisk held his breath, carefully choosing what to say next. He noticed he was probably talking to the leader of the group, which just added to his nervousness.

“I was the only one from us who didn’t have any means of self defense.”, he replied. “We came here to fix that problem. Monsters can do magic, but we humans can’t, as you must be aware by now.”

“I see...”, she said in return.

It was clear she was in doubt of whether she should or not let them walk away. Silence filled the room. Their freedom was no more than a possibility at the moment, but Frisk had to hold onto that hope. There was nothing else to do.

“Ma’am?”, called a man next to the woman. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but you can’t be possibly thinking of letting them go, right?”

“And why not, Richard?”, she asked.

The man looked at the trio, full of suspicion.

“We don’t know if they are telling the truth.”, he started, looking back to the woman. “I mean, he looks like a human, sure, but a human walking around with monsters sounds a bit fishy to me. Who’s to say they are not gonna come back with reinforcements? I say we kill them to prevent that. Their supplies are gonna be useful, too.”

For the first time, people started to talk over what the man had said. To Frisk’s horror, most of them were agreeing with him. That wasn’t good, but it wasn’t like they didn’t have a point. What could the human reply?

 _“I don’t know if you’re more human... or monster.”,_ Bonnie’s words echoed in his head.

“It’s true.”, said Frisk, and everybody looked at him again.

He could feel MK staring at him, probably thinking he had gone insane. The man, Richard, and the militia leader both looked at him with inquisitive looks.

“You don’t know if I’m lying.”, continued the human. “And I can’t prove what I’m saying. I can just plead... no, _beg_ of you... to believe in me. I can only give you my word that we won’t come back if you let us go.”

Cold sweat was all over Frisk’s forehead. He knew he was threading on very thin ice, and one wrong sentence, or even one wrong word could mean their doom. He wasn’t even sure he had done the right thing.

The woman kept eye contact with him, and Frisk used all his might not to look away. Richard, however, pointed at him.

“I remember now.”, he said, angry. “You were in four, right? One is missing! Where is he!?”

Frisk didn’t even know how it was possible, but it seemed as if even more guns were pointed at them as people understood what the man was saying. The human felt his mouth dry. He wanted to look at Papyrus, but couldn’t do it.

“H-he...”, babbled Frisk in response. “He’s...”

The look on the militia leader’s expression changed. It was no longer inquisitive, imposing and mistrustful, but sorrowful. Pitiful, even. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Leave.”, she said, opening them again.

There was a small commotion from the people around her, not believing what she had just said. Richard looked at her, confused.

“Ma’am?”, he asked. “We... we can’t just leave them be!”

“Silence!”, she commanded, and everyone stopped talking all at once. She looked at Frisk, her eyes fierce again. “You can keep your things. Go. Get far away from here.”

The human felt something stuck in his throat. He actually did it? Were they saved? It was too good to be true.

“Thank you.”, he said, nodding.

Richard, on the other hand, looked hysterical.

“ _What_!? Are you actually doing it!? What about our ammo!? What about what I said earlier!?" 

“I know the risks, Richard, thank you very much.”, she replied sarcastically. “But we can’t afford to spill innocent blood. If we stop caring and just kill everyone who crosses our paths, we’ll lose what little humanity we’ve been able to keep so far.”

“But... but..!”

“I’ve made my mind.”, she stated firmly. “Open the door. Let them leave.”

The militia members seemed to be reluctant in obeying their leader, but in the end they didn’t have any other choice. One by one, they all put their guns down and walked around to make space so Frisk and the monsters could pass.

With his hands still shaking a little, he picked up the handgun from the ground and pocketed it. He turned around to face MK and Papyrus. The former looked in awe at the human, not believing what had just happened. The latter, however, looked uncharacteristically indifferent to the whole situation, and that broke Frisk’s heart. In normal circumstances, the taller skeleton would be the first to cheerfully compliment the human.

But the circumstances weren’t normal, and perhaps they’d never be.

“I have a warning to give you.”, said the leader, and Frisk turned around to look at her. “I’m letting you leave, so don’t take this for granted. If we see you in this town again, we won’t show _any_ mercy. Understood?”

Frisk nodded energetically, and the woman made a motion with her head – a sign for them to leave. He motioned for MK and Papyrus to follow him, and they walked across the room, fully aware everyone was staring at them. Richard looked at them extremely angry, but the human payed it no mind. Soon enough, they were outside once again, the door closing behind their backs. 

It was still night and the temperature had dropped by several degrees. Frisk had lost sense of time, though it felt like decades had passed. All he wanted to do was to lay down anywhere and sleep until morning, but they couldn’t do that. They had to get the farthest they could from that town first. Against all odds, they were shown mercy, but that would hardly happen again – the militia leader’s warning was clear.

Deep inside, Frisk knew what he had just done was amazing. He saved his, MK and Papyrus’ lives by simply talking. Yet – he couldn’t feel happy, nor proud, because something was missing. And now that he wasn’t in immediate danger anymore, he could feel it growing in his chest – a dark, black void that would never be filled again. Not really.

He felt incomplete. They all did.

* * *

 

It wasn’t the first time they felt like they were walking aimlessly without any purpose or objective, but that never hurt as bad as it did in the moment. Three lost souls wandering in the dark woods, guided by nothing but the will to survive.

Frisk didn’t want to think – if he did, he would suffer. He didn’t want to think about the war, or how he was supposed to “end” it. He didn’t want to think about Undyne. He just pressed forward, guiding MK and Papyrus through the dark with a small flashlight.

Sans’ backpack was heavy, and having to carry it alongside his own was starting to make his shoulders hurt. However, he wasn’t going to ask to take turns with Papyrus to do it. He could only imagine what the skeleton was going through. Sans’ death was affecting the human deeply, and he wasn’t even a relative to them. He felt fearful about what would happen to Papyrus. What if they became so broken they’d never smile again? What if they stopped believing? What if they stopped being Papyrus altogether?

The trio walked in the forest for quite some time, not exchanging a word in the way. Frisk figured they must have made some distance from the town, and as they were all tired, he decided they could rest there.

“I think this is a good spot.”, stated the human, turning around to face the two monsters. “I’ll... I’ll start the watch. Sunrise must not be far, anyway.”

And that was all that was needed. Papyrus dropped on his knees and grabbed his face, his shoulders shaking. Frisk knew what was happening even before the skeleton started giving loud sobs and hiccups. He felt as if someone was squeezing his heart.

“S-SANS... SANS...”, they cried, desolated. “SANS... WHY... SANS...”

“Papyrus...”, said MK, sounding heartbroken.

What Frisk really wanted to do was sit and cry with the skeleton. Instead, he approached the reptilian monster and made a sign for them to give Papyrus some space. They understood and followed the human, who stopped after they both made some distance.

“Just... leave him be, for now.”, said Frisk, and MK nodded.

Despite being some feet away, he could still hear Papyrus’ breakdown, and it made him feel miserable. With nothing else to do, he sat on the ground, taking off both backpacks. If his shoulders could sigh with relief, they would. MK sat next to him. From the faint light of the flashlight, they didn’t look any better than the human did. He wanted to say something – anything so he didn’t have to hear the skeleton crying – but couldn’t come up with anything. So they just sat in silence for a moment.

“It’s _my_ fault.”, said MK, his voice full of guilt. “Sans, he... he saved me. Man, if I hadn’t been so stupid... if I had cast a shield spell, he would still be with us.”

“You can’t blame yourself for this.”, replied Frisk. “Nobody asked for this to happen, it just... did.”

And that was what hurt the most. How sudden it was. How unnecessary. One second, Sans was with them, and in the other, they had vanished permanently from the world.

“I just don’t get it.”, continued the yellow monster. “I... I never thought that he’d... he’d save me, of all of us. I know we had made peace with each other a couple months ago, but...”

“Sans... he... he was a good monster.”, said Frisk, his voice trembling. “H-he had a... a good soul.”

“Yeah... he was.”, agreed MK, full of emotion.

Frisk embraced his own legs in an attempt to make his body stop shaking. Silence filled the air once again as Papyrus’ sobs started to slow down. The human wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad sign.

“What are we gonna do, Frisk?”

“I don’t know.”, he replied. “We can’t take on Undyne... not like this.”

“So we’re running away?”

And they were back to running away. Frisk’s whole life had been an eternal runaway – from the orphanage to the current war. What else could he do? He wasn’t ready for that. He had never been ready for that.

“I don’t like this.”, stated the human.

“Me neither.”

Papyrus’ sobs had completely stopped. Frisk could see their silhouette in the dark, and they hadn’t moved from their spot. It filled his heart with a creepling dread.

“Frisk?”, called MK. “I’m... I’m scared.” 

He looked to the yellow monster, and their expression confirmed their statement, indeed. They were in such a hellish situation, with no idea of what to do and nowhere to go. “Scared” was a way to put it mildly.

“I’m scared too...”

* * *

 

“He’s not okay, is he?” 

Frisk discreetly looked back at Papyrus. They were sat by a tree, looking uninterested to a white flower next to them with a sorrowful expression that really made the human’s heart hurt. And as he had been looking at them pretty often, it felt like he was always in pain.

“Of course not.”, stated Frisk, sighing. “It’s been three days only.”

Three days that felt more like three centuries. The hours passed by sluggishly, and to make matters worse Frisk felt they weren’t going anywhere – as far as he knew, they could be walking in circles. However, they had to start doing something. If they weren’t going after Undyne anymore, they had to at least find a way to get supplies – the ones they had wouldn’t last forever.

It was the middle of the afternoon, but they decided to rest on a clearing for a little while. Papyrus immediately picked a tree far from MK and Frisk and sat by it – he had been doing that for the last few days, and for the moment the two boys decided to leave it at that.

Frisk sat on the ground, and MK did the same as the human tossed the two backpacks he had been carrying. Their combined weight made his shoulders feel sore. He stretched his back in an attempt to make it feel better.

“What are you gonna do about Sans’ backpack?”, asked MK, looking at Frisk rotating his shoulders. “It would be easier if you just picked up its contents and put it in yours.”

Frisk looked at the bag. He hadn’t opened it or checked its contents yet – there was something holding him back, so he just took it along with his own. Not a practical solution, but...

“I’m...”, babbled the human. “I’m not sure I should... I...”

“Frisk, you can’t sanctuarize the backpack.”, replied MK rationally. “I mean, come on, I can see you’re tired from carrying two backpacks all day long, and as much as I’d like to help, you know... I can’t.”

They looked down, as if disappointed with themselves. Frisk knew how the lack of arms affected MK. Some simple tasks like eating or drinking were difficult for them, although they had never complained about it. More often than not, the human thought that being as skilled in magic as they were, not having arms would be nothing to worry about, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

He looked once again at the backpack. Should he check it there? What if Sans put something personal in there? Unlike Frisk’s and Papyrus’ bags, Sans’ had kept the same one he got from a department store four months before. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he kept some things of his own among the supplies. Besides, how would the taller skeleton react if he saw Frisk fiddling with the it?

Before he could dwell on the matter much longer, a shadow covered him from the front, blocking the sunlight. He looked up and was surprised to see Papyrus there, looking at the human straight in the eyes with a strange – but somehow, not unfamiliar – expression. MK seemed to be just as surprised with the skeleton’s approach.

“H-hey, Papyrus.”, greeted the human, feeling a bit uneasy. “Are you o-”

“WE NEED TO GO.”

That was the first time Papyrus talked directly to him in three days, but Frisk wasn’t sure if he was relieved or even more uncomfortable. _Go_? Go where?

“Uh... what?”, asked the human, confused.

“WE MUST FIND UNDYNE.”, stated the skeleton, his expression not changing for one second. “WE HAVE NO TIME TO LOSE.”

Frisk clenched his fists and looked to the ground. Why did Papyrus, of all people, was telling him _that_? Nevertheless, the statement wasn’t the reason the human avoided eye contact. It was because he realized what their expression represented.

Determination.

He looked at MK, who seemed to be nervous with the situation. However, they stood up, even though the skeleton was much higher than them.

“We... uh...”, said the yellow monster, unsure. “We decided to stop going after Undyne. At least for now.”

Papyrus blinked and looked at the reptilian monster, confused.

“WHAT!? NO! WE HAVE TO FIND UNDYNE! WE CAN’T LET THIS WAR GO ON ANY LONGER! WE CAN’T ALLOW ANYMORE LIVES TO BE... TO BE..!”

They couldn’t complete the sentence, and Frisk understood. Of course that was it. He stood up and placed a hand on Papyrus’ shoulder, trying to comfort them.

“Papyrus...”, he said. “I get it, ok? You don’t want... what happened... to happen again, but we can’t-”

“NO, YOU _DON’T_ GET IT!”, exclaimed Papyrus suddenly, and Frisk flinched, taking his hand from their shoulder. “YOU DON’T! IF YOU DID, WE’D BE ON OUR WAY TO UNDYNE! HOW COULD YOU!? YOU DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME YOU HAD GIVEN UP!”

“It’s... it’s not that we gave up!”, replied Frisk, defensive. “It’s just... we have to rethink what we’ve been doing. Listen, we would only be able to defeat Undyne, or whatever, because of Sans, and... well, now he’s-”

“NO! IT’S _NOT_ BECAUSE OF SANS!”, said the skeleton, cutting the human’s sentence once more. He felt deeply bothered – it was like they weren’t even listening. “WE COULD DEFEAT UNDYNE BECAUSE OF YOUR HUMAN SOUL! AND YOU’RE STILL HERE, SO WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE!”

“Nothing to lose? _Excuse me_!?”, exclaimed MK, joining in. “So you’re willing to leave Frisk for dead now!?”

“I DIDN’T SAY THAT!”, replied Papyrus. “BUT SANS DIED FOR THIS! AND I’M WILLING TO DIE FOR THIS, TOO, IF NECESSARY! YOU SHOULD BE READY! THIS ISN’T A GAME, THIS ISN’T A PLAY! THIS IS REAL!”

A billion thoughts were crossing Frisk’s head, and none of them were able to make it to his mouth for him to speak up. He never saw Papyrus like that – he never thought he would ever see them like that. It was like he was facing an entirely different skeleton.

“If we face Undyne as we are, we’ll only be killed!”, said the yellow monster. “This is not brave, this is dumb!”

“IT’S NOT DUMB IF IT’S HONORABLE!”, said Papyrus, exasperated.

“Well, excuse me if I have no intention of following your dear brother’s footsteps...”, stated MK, rolling his eyes.

“SANS KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING!”

“Oh, _did_ he?”, replied the reptilian monster, sarcasm in every word. “Come on, Papyrus! He didn’t have any more of an idea of what to do as we did!”

“HE WAS STILL THE ONE WHO GUIDED US UP UNTIL NOW!”

“Yeah, and look at where _that_ got him! I don’t know if you realized, but HE’S DEAD! HE’S MURDERED!”

“SHUT UP!”

Papyrus raised his right hand, and Frisk watched, paralyzed in horror as a sharp bone was projected at MK. It scratched the yellow monster’s face, opening a cut that started to bleed a green liquid.

It felt like the temperature had sharply dropped. MK looked with a mix of anger and shock to the skeleton, who in turn looked enraged. For some seconds, they all stood there in silence, tensed up and defensive. Frisk’s brain was having a hard time accepting what had just happened. Did Papyrus really..?

The skeleton clenched his fist and brought it close to his torso, grasping it with his other hand and closing his eyes for a moment. His whole body was shaking. MK kept their mouth half-open, dumbfounded by his sudden attack. Frisk was well aware that if that bone had been thrown a bit to the left, the consequences would have been dire.

“IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FOLLOW THE PLAN ANYMORE...”, said Papyrus, his voice filled with a restrained anger. “I’LL HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.”

He looked utterly miserable – sorrow and anger showing in every line of his face, making Frisk want to apologize for everything. For his dumb decisions that started that war. For Sans’ death, even if he was aware that hadn’t been _directly_ his fault.

Then, Papyrus turned around and started walking away.

It took Frisk a second for the meaning of the skeleton’s words to actually hit him. Suddenly, all emotions drained from him and were replaced by deep fear and anguish.

“No... Papyrus!”, pleaded Frisk, following them, but they started to run.

Despair installed within every cell of his body – he wanted to scream, but it felt like there was a golf ball stuck in his throat. He ran, trying to make it to the skeleton, following them out of the clearing and into the woods.

“P-papyrus!”, he stuttered, struggling to keep the skeleton on his line of sight. “Please!”

And there was a familiar whooshing sound, and Frisk stopped hearing the fast-paced footsteps from the skeleton running. He felt tears forming on his eyes. That sound... but Papyrus couldn’t... he never...

“P-papyrus?”, he called, his voice shaking badly. He was on the brink of a breakdown. “No... no... please...”

But nobody came.

His vision was getting blurred from the tears that were involuntarily forming. He never knew Papyrus could teleport like Sans did, but he was sure that was what happened. That whooshing sound gave no room for any doubts. 

Frisk heard soft footsteps behind him and eagerly turned around, holding onto the futile hope it was the skeleton – but it was only MK. The green “blood” on their cheek had dried, but they had a sad and guilty look that showed that Papyrus’ attack hadn’t hurt him only on the outside. But even with that, the human could feel nothing but anger towards the yellow monster.

“ARE YOU HAPPY!?”, he yelled, and MK flinched.

Deep inside, he knew it wasn’t their fault – none of that had been their fault, but things were getting unbearable. Frisk fell to his knees, grabbing his head and letting out a loud sob, crying like he had never cried before. He let it all go while MK stood there, not sure of what to do.

_“want you... to... stick together... until... the end... promise?”_

_God_ , he couldn’t even keep that promise for mere three days. He felt miserable, and had the infantile wish that he was just in a bad dream – that he would one day wake up and find himself anywhere but in the middle of that war. He’d rather find himself back at the orphanage, the place he hated the most, if that would mean that war would stop. That all that pain would stop.

Why couldn’t it just end right there? Why couldn’t a lightning come from the sky and hit him, pulverizing him into tiny bits? Why couldn’t a monster – or a human – appear and just _kill_ him? Death was the biggest mercy he could get – although he didn’t deserve such mercy. After all he did, he didn’t deserve to be happy. He didn’t deserve to laugh or have a good time. He was destined to suffer until his very last breath.

Frisk wasn’t sure for how long he kept crying in a desolated, hopeless state, slightly aware that MK was there looking. Eventually, he calmed himself down – the tears stopped falling, and the loud hiccups reduced to short sobs. He felt a little better, like he had just been disintoxicated from something poisonous, but he felt tired, sad and fed up with everything. What was he supposed to do? Where should he go?

He slowly stood up, wiping up the tears from his face. MK was a few feet away, and glanced nervously to the ground when the human looked at them. They had been watching him – that much was certain. He walked past them, sensing they were upset but still not even looking at their face, more because of shame than actual anger. He got back into the clearing and walked decisively to where his and Sans’ backpacks were tossed.

Sitting down next to it, Frisk picked Sans’ bag and pulled it closer, hesitating a little. Suddenly, a burning anger installed within his heart. That situation – everything – was _all_ Sans’ fault. How could they have died just like that? How could they have left him, Papyrus and MK all alone? How did he _dare_ to give the human hope – hope that one day things would get better – and then just turn into dust? He wanted to throw the backpack away and kick it until it ripped, and all its contents were left there to be forgotten.

But then, the anger passed, leaving only an icy sorrow behind. He was being ridiculous – he knew Sans didn’t ask for that. They died protecting the group. They died so that the others could live. He felt tears threatening to fall once again, and closed his eyes. There was so _much_ he wanted to say. He wanted to apologize for calling the skeleton a “selfish trashbag” all those months ago. He wanted to say he enjoyed (some of) their puns and jokes. He wanted to ask more about their work as a scientist, and about Dr. Gaster. He wanted to make the skeleton sure he considered them a brother – a part of a family he never had.

He wanted to say he missed them.

“Uh... you okay?”

Frisk opened his eyes once again and looked up. MK was there glancing at him with a mix of concern and guilt. He didn’t feel angry at the reptilian monster anymore. It seemed it would only be the two of them from that point onward, and the prospective filled the human with an increasing anxiety.

“Ok, I guess that was a stupid question.”, they said as Frisk didn’t reply.

He simply looked back at the backpack he was holding and opened it. The first thing he saw were some food cans, which he immediately started to pick up from the bag and leave next to him, counting.

“S-so... you finally let go of the backpack?”, asked MK.

From their behavior, it was clear they thought Frisk was still mad at them, but the truth was simply the human wasn’t in mood to talk. He picked up Sans’ water bottle and flashlight, taking out the batteries.

“It’s like you said.”, replied Frisk, and the yellow monster held his breath. “I can’t sanctuarize the backpack. I have to let go... and move on.”

MK nodded way too energetically, indicating he was still nervous. However, Frisk’s response was the confirmation he needed to keep pressing forward, checking if the human wanted him around. 

“There is something that’s been bothering me.”, he said, shifting his weight on his feet. “When Sans... you know... he bled... _red_.”

For a moment, Frisk stopped what he was doing. Actually, that had been nagging his mind for a while. It was a shock when he saw the red liquid that looked like blood pouring out from the skeleton’s wounds.

“As weird as it sounds, maybe it’s just that skeletons bleed?”, the human suggested.

“That’s the problem. Skeletons _can’t_ bleed.”, stated MK. “And... well... monsters don’t have red blood as humans do. Like, some species have blood-like fluid, like me, but it’s never the color red.”

Frisk frowned. If monsters couldn’t bleed red, then what was it that poured from Sans’ body on the night they died?

“Where are you getting at?”, he asked.

“I don’t know...”, they replied, looking down. “It’s just really bugging me.”

The yellow monster was right to be bugged – if what they said was right that didn’t make any sense. It seemed that would be yet another thing to be added to the mysteries shrouding Sans. When he first saw them in the Underground, Frisk never thought there was such a complex enigma under that everlasting grin.

“I guess we’ll never know, now.”, the human said simplistically, going back to searching the skeleton’s backpack. MK seemed to settle for that in the moment.

He had already taken most of the things from the bag. He was happy to notice Sans had looted lots of food from the last town they “visited” – it would be more than enough for them until they reached the next city – if it wasn’t overrun by humans, that was.

He then ended up picking up a piece of paper – and not any ordinary piece of paper. It was folded like an envelope. Frisk turned it around, confused, and found the words “ _t_ _o papyrus_ ” written in what he presumed to be Sans’ handwriting. The human felt his heart sinking. It was a letter to Papyrus, and although Frisk didn’t read it, he knew _exactly_ what were its contents. But now, the taller skeleton was gone, and it was possible they’d never read it.

“Are you gonna open it?”, asked MK, a bit curious.

“No.”, replied Frisk firmly. “It’s to Papyrus. I’ll just hold it for him, in case he... comes back. Anyway, reading letters from dead people never leads to anything good.”

“If you say so...”

The human grabbed his own backpack and placed the letter neatly inside one of its pockets, in a way it wouldn’t screw up. In the end, he was still holding on to the hope the taller skeleton would return, even though the possibilities were slim, after all, MK and he had to keep moving. But then again, he was also doing it to comfort himself – carrying the letter made it feel like Sans was a bit closer.

Then, he remembered there was another thing in his backpack that belonged to the shorter skeleton, and MK seemed to be thinking about it too.

“Frisk, I hate to bring it up but... why on earth did you bottle Sans’ dust up back at the factory?”

In all honesty, the human wasn’t sure either. He was well aware there was a bottle full of monster dust in his backpack, and had a vague impression MK found it kind of creepy. Well, he was carrying someone’s remains in a water bottle inside his bag – he had to admit that was at least a little peculiar.

“I...”, Frisk attempted to reply, his voice failing a little. “I think... I mean... couldn’t... when I thought about Sans there... in the factory... all alone and forgotten, I...”

MK looked sorrowfully at the human. They looked each other in the eyes, and Frisk knew the reptilian monster understood.

“Hey... I get it.”, they said, looking down. Frisk noticed they weren’t looking at the ground, but at their own chest, and remembered that MK kept a pendant with a small vial that held their mother’s dust underneath their sweater. “Maybe we could... you know, do as monsters do in times like these? We could sprinkle his dust over things he liked.”

Frisk gave a dry laugh. Of course the idea itself was good, but...

“There’s _nothing_ in this rotten land that’s worth of Sans.”, he replied pessimistically.

The reptilian monster opened his mouth in an attempt to reply, but changed his mind, sitting down next to the human instead. Frisk simply shrugged and resumed searching Sans’ backpack, slowly taking the last few supplies out. When the bag seemed empty, he picked it up and shook it upside down to be sure he left nothing behind. Another piece of paper fell to the ground. Curious, he picked it up. From the paper type, it looked like it was a photograph.

_What the hell was that?_

As soon as he saw what the picture was, his hands started shaking violently. That was _impossible_. That had to be some kind of sick joke.

He screamed and let the photo fall to the ground again as a sharp pain bolted through his skull, grabbing his head in his hands.

He remembered.

He remembered _everything_.

It felt like his brain was going to explode.

A swirl of memories that had been long forgotten got back to him all in once, and they carried all sorts of feelings with them. Anger, hope, fear, joy, sadness... it was too much. He could hear MK talking to him, scared, but the voice sounded distant, muffled down by the billion of other noises and voices that screamed inside his head.

Eventually, it stopped, but Frisk kept holding his head, as if it would fall down from his neck if he let it go. His heart was pounding and he felt like he was about to throw up.

Breath in. Breath out.

“Frisk..?”, asked MK with hesitation. “W-what happened?”

The human looked at the reptilian monster, and they seemed scared with what had just happened. Frisk couldn’t blame them, but then, there was their question. How could he explain them what had happened? With his hands still shaking, he reached out for the photo carefully – like he was about to touch a bomb – and raised it up their eyes so that they could see it. MK looked at the photo and blinked a few times, their expression quickly turning into a confused one. 

“Uh...”, they said, astonished. “This is edited, right?”

“No.”, replied Frisk, with a sour taste in his mouth. “It’s the real deal.”

And how did Sans was in possession of it? That should have been impossible.

“But that doesn’t make _any_ sense!”, exclaimed the yellow monster, shaking their head dismissively.

Frisk lowered the photo and hesitantly looked at it again. MK was right, that _didn’t_ make any sense. Or at least, it shouldn’t.

The photograph showed signs of time, but was well preserved regardless. A ten-year-old Frisk was in the middle, beaming. Sans was by his right with an arm around his shoulders and winking at the camera. Papyrus was next to them, smiling joyfully.

And then, there was the _rest_ of the picture. Alphys was by Frisk’s left, half-covering her face with her hands, shyly. Undyne was next to her, with a confident smile and fist-pumping the air. She had her long hair in a ponytail, and was wearing casual clothes. She looked strikingly different from how Frisk remembered her – her posture was much more friendly and relaxed.

And then, to top it off, Toriel and Asgore were behind them, both smiling kindly. They were all on the surface – as proved by the imposing Mt. Ebott in the background. Everyone – they looked so happy. So full of hope. It filled the human’s heart with a bittersweet feeling. It was sweet because it remembered him of better times. Of better days. And it was bitter because he knew that they didn’t have a happy ending.

If they had, he wouldn’t be in the middle of a war.

“Frisk... _when_ was this photo taken?”, inquired MK.

The human was still shaken up about it, so he didn’t notice what the yellow monster really wanted to know with that question.

“Six years ago...”

MK rolled his eyes.

“Oh, come on! You escaped Underground alone. How’s everyone up there with you? Look, even Undyne is there, _smiling_ , and she despises you more than anything!”

Frisk embraced himself in the height of his belly, feeling his stomach contorting. He didn’t want to confront MK about the photograph, but they weren’t going to let that subject drop. How would he explain it when he could barely do it to himself?

“This was taken six years ago...”, attempted Frisk. “In another... well... life.”

He saw immediately that wasn’t the answer the reptilian monster was expecting. They frowned and shook their head, looking at Frisk as if he had gone crazy. He hated that look, even though he wished he had gone indeed crazy. That would have made things easier.

“Man, are y-”

“No, you didn’t get it. This life we live here... is just one of many.”, he interrupted, and MK stopped talking. “While we speak, there are other timelines playing, and the people in them are living their lives, not knowing about any of this. The people in this timeline too are, in general, unaware about it.”

MK glanced a look to the photo that was now laying on the ground, starting to fit the puzzle pieces in their places.

“So basically, you’re saying this photo is from another _life_? Another... um... ‘timeline’?”, they inquired, trying to understand what the human was saying. “But then, how did Sans have it? Actually, how is this even here?”

That was what Frisk couldn’t understand. Still, there was something else to be told about that story – a small detail that changed _everything_. The very reason for all the sins he committed.

“Life goes on throughout all timelines. Normally that’s what happens.”, continued the human. “But six years ago... something happened. Timelines began to end and to mend with each other. To be entirely rewritten, or even destroyed. The cause... was an anomaly. _Me_.” 

MK’s reaction was just as he expected – the reptilian monster looked at him with a mix of shock, confusion and curiosity. He sensed they were still skeptical about all that, but Frisk needed to keep talking. He had to get that – probably his darkest secret – out of his chest.

“You..?”

“My life here in the surface was... well, it was bad. So when I first fell into the Underground, and I met all those monsters who became my friends, I was the happiest I had ever been.”, said Frisk, feeling a bit weird to be reminiscing about a life that technically never existed. “Then, I reached Asgore, and I managed to get past him and the barrier, but... monsters were still trapped Underground. And I... I wished to do something to help and... I found myself back at the Ruins. But nobody remembered me. But more than that: everyone was acting the same way they did when I first met them. Except... well...”

Except that sociopathic flower – they were well aware that hadn’t been the first time Frisk had fallen down. They even mocked him for it, asking if they didn’t have anything better to do. How they managed to retain their memories was something the human couldn’t quite explain. Then again, he just learned there was someone else who kept their memories. It sent shivers down his spine.

“Anyway... that was how I learned... I could turn back time. I could reset things, _and start them all over again_. And when I realized that, I decided to use that power for the good. It took me a couple tries until I did everything that was necessary to break the barrier and free the monsters from the Underground. That was when this photo was taken.”

He pointed to the photo on the ground. MK had a pensive expression instead of a skeptical one, which Frisk took as a good sign. Why would he go through the trouble of elaborating such a crazy lie, anyway?

“That makes sense. I guess.”, said the reptilian monster after a while. “But there’s one thing. If we are right here right now, that means...”

He looked nervously at Frisk, who in turn looked down, ashamed – after all, the human knew where that logic would lead them.

“Yeah.”, he replied, nodding, with a sad look in his eyes. “I reset again... even after I had saved everybody. But don’t bother asking why, because... I honestly can’t remember. Something must have gone wrong, because when I reset that time, I lost all my memories from the previous timelines.”

Frisk glanced at his palms, the white scars across them still visible.

“And now... we’re here.”, he completed. “I didn’t start all over yet again because I didn’t remember about it. I just... crossed the Underground, and never came back. And I made some horrible mistakes and poor decisions then. That’s why things are the way they are now.”

And that was just another thing he could add to his ever growing “guilt pile”. All that pain and suffering, all those deaths from humans and monsters... it was all his fault. Why did he reset after things were perfect? Was it possible for him to ever get redemption?

“Sans... you knew about all this, didn’t you?”, Frisk mumbled to himself, picking the photo up and looking at the shorter skeleton. “Why didn’t you tell me? God, you must have hated me.”

Frisk would likely never know that. Sans could have forgiven him, despised him, or something in between. He looked at MK, thinking it wouldn’t be surprising if they despised him too after learning all that. Their parents were dead because of him, after all.

But MK was looking back at Frisk with a soft, understanding expression that made them look a little older than they actually were.

“Dude, I don’t know if I understand all this... but there’s no use in blaming yourself for it now.”, they said, slowly shaking their head. “Remember what you told me, about four months ago? We can’t change our past, but we can change our future, and try to be better. You should focus on that. We can only move forward, now.”

Frisk didn’t think he deserved any form of forgiveness, but was deeply grateful for the yellow monster’s support – then again, maybe it was because they didn’t understand the gravity of the human’s actions. Still, they had a point: they could only move forward – forward was the only way to go.

Or was it?

Frisk bolted upwards like a sudden shock had gotten through his body, as an idea quickly formed in his head. How could he have taken so long to realize it?

There _was_ a way for him to fix his mistakes.

“MK!”, he said, looking at the yellow monster with his eyes lighting up. “MK, that’s it!”

They looked up, confused.

“Uh... what’s ‘it’?”

“We’ve been talking about resets and going back in time!”, explained Frisk, excited. “Which means forward is _not_ the only way to go. In fact... we can do the exact opposite. We can go _backwards_!”

It took a second, but MK realized what Frisk was saying, quickly standing up with a spooked expression.

“No... n-no way!”, they said, stuttering a little. “You are actually thinking...”

But Frisk was so excited he started walking from one side of the clearing to the other, deep in thought.

“ _Exactly_. We’ve been worried about stopping Undyne, and bringing this war to an end. But what if we make it so the war _never started_ in the first place? What if we make one last reset to fix everything?”

“But how do you intend to that?”, inquired the yellow monster.

Frisk stopped walking, and put a hand on his chin, thinking. He didn’t have a rational explanation for that, but somehow he had a feeling the answer lied where he first got his “power”.

“I need to go back six years ago, when I first fell to the Underground.”, he explained. “And for that... I have to return to where it all started. To Mt. Ebott. To the Underground.”

“Whoa, whoa! Hold it, man!”, exclaimed MK, cautiously. “There’s a lot of ‘what ifs’ in this plan. _If_ we make it back to Mt. Ebott, and _if_ you actually manage to do a reset to six years ago... what guarantees you’re not going to lose all your memories again, and do the same thing? We’d be stuck in this loop forever! What if... what if this is actually not the first time we’re doing this?”

The human frowned. They _did_ have a point there. There were a bit too many holes in that plan for it to work as he intended. Still...

“I’ll... have to work on that.”, he replied, and MK looked disappointed. “Listen, I know for sure there’s a way for me to reset and keep my memories... I just don’t know it yet, but I’ll figure something out.”

“That’s hardly reassuring, Frisk.”

“Maybe so, but I have no other choice.”, the human said. “Listen, I got a chance of saving everyone. And that includes the king and the queen, Sans and your parents – all those deaths were, in some degree, my fault. But I wanna make it right. I wanna fix it. And I’m sure as hell I’m doing it, no matter what.”

He turned his back to MK, putting his hands on his hips and sighing. He always knew that, if he had a chance – no matter how small it was – to fix his mistakes, he would take it. That chance had finally presented itself, but he was aware he couldn’t drag the reptilian monster with him. They didn’t have anything to do with that, after all.

“I’ll understand if you don’t wanna come with me. I mean, the way back to Ebott will be dangerous, and I see you’re not convinced this will work. That’s why... that’s why you can leave if you want. There won’t... be any hard feelings, okay?”

Frisk managed to keep his voice steady, but deep down he had never been more scared. He was about to venture into the unknown, following a plan with dubious chances of success – if that wasn’t frightening, he had no idea of what else would be. There was a moment of silence, long enough for Frisk to understand. He looked down.

So that was it, huh?

“Wow, you really _are_ an idiot.”

Frisk turned around, surprised with MK’s response, and got even more surprised when he noticed they were giving a confident smile.

“I mean, how can you even _think_ for one second I’ll let you do this alone?”, they continued, their smile not faltering. “You already told me you’d never leave me behind. Guess what, genius, this works both ways, even if you are the king of crappy plans. I’m never leaving you behind, Frisk. Like it or not, I’m coming along, and we’ll do this together. Until the very end.”

The reptilian monster smiled kindly, and Frisk couldn’t help but smile back – and it felt like millennia had passed since he had last smiled. Of course, how could he have been so dumb? They’ve been together in this for too long to simply part ways. He felt tears coming to his eyes, but he held them back. He still had a little pride to hold onto – but he was really happy regardless.

“Thank you, MK.”

The yellow monster nodded, and Frisk looked up to the sky tinted with an orange tone. On the bare minimum, he had an objective, and he would fight – or act – with all his strength to complete it. It wouldn’t be easy, but knowing MK would be right there with him gave him even more motivation.

That time, in a strange twist of fate, backward was the only way to go.

And that filled him with determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> END OF PART II.  
> I can't believe I actually carried on with this project! I'm so excited with how it's turning out! Thank you for all who have kept with me so far!  
> The story continues on the next part, "Undying Wish"! Click on the arrow next to the series' name to go to it!


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